ARMM growing economy hinges on strong agri-sector

COTABATO CITY -- The Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) is relying on its strong agriculture sector for the region’s continuous growth, regional statistical records showed.

The Philippine Statistics Authority – ARMM (PSA-ARMM) said that out of 17 regions in the country, ARMM is the only region with a strong agricultural base, as the rest of the country thrives on predominantly services- and industrial-based regional economies.

“The ARMM is a persistent and predominantly agricultural region,” PSA-ARMM Director Razulden Mangelen told reporters here Wednesday.

She identified other sectors contributing to the region’s growth as those from the hunting, forestry, and fishing industries.

Latest PSA records showed that the ARMM posited 7.3 percent in 2017, a significant leap from the 0.4 percent gross regional domestic product (GRDP) growth rate it registered in 2016.

“The ARMM's GRDP growth rate is the highest so far in the region’s history,” Mangelen said.

The agriculture, hunting, forestry, and fishing industries, aptly called AHFF, posted the highest contribution to ARMM’s economic growth, accounting for 4.3 percentage points out of the 7.3 percent GRDP growth of the region.

Both the agriculture and forestry subclass and the fishing subclass under the AHFF sector registered significant growth, with agriculture and forestry posting a growth of 8.7 percent in 2017 from negative 0.9 percent in 2016, and fishing with a growth of 4.5 percent from negative 8.7 percent in 2016.

“The ARMM is far from perfect, but the reforms we have institutionalized in the region have been crucial. Our sluggish economy in the past was never about lack of resources but of political will, which is why we have committed ourselves to making the ARMM bureaucracy work better for the people,” ARMM Governor Mujiv Hataman also told reporters here.

He described the current PSA figures as “significant” considering that ARMM's farmers and fishermen remain among the poorest of the poor in the country as of 2015 based on PSA data released last year.

“We are glad to see that our efforts have led not only to unprecedented statistical growth but to actual growth that is felt by the Bangsamoro,” Hataman said.

ARMM ranks sixth in terms of economic growth for the year 2017, among the 17 regions in the country. (PNA/By Noel Punzalan/re-posted by Becky D. de Asis- The Redline News)