October 13, 2022 – Bacolod City hosts the Third Quarter Regional Development Council (RDC) VI Full Council Meeting held at L’Fisher Hotel.

A total of 100 participants from the provinces, highly urbanized cities, component cities, capital towns, regional line agencies, and the private sector of the region will be attending the meeting, together with the NEDA VI staff as the secretariat.

Mayor Albee Benitez delivered the welcoming remarks in the said meeting.

In the State of the Region Address (SORA) delivered by the RDC VI OIC – Acting Regional Director Aracio Casing, Jr., It was presented that from a negative 9.7 percent growth in CY 2020, the regional economic growth as measured by the Gross Regional Domestic Product (GRDP) in 2021 rebounded to 5.9 percent.

As for the agricultural report, the region has a 136.9 rice sufficiency ratio on average in its 1st quarter, and remains to be the 3rd largest rice producing region in the country.

Challenges faced by the region were also stated in the occurrence of Typhoons Odette, Agaton and Basyang in the last quarter of 2021 and second quarter of 2022, respectively.

For Typhoon Odette alone, investment requirement to address damages, losses, and needs was about PHP18 billion; As of April 12, 2022, Typhoon Agaton’s initial damage and losses amounted to PHP270.3 million.

Improvement was seen in the region’s labor indicators during the 2nd Quarter of 2022.

The number of employed individuals grew by 2.04 percent while the Labor Force Participation Rate or the percentage of the total number of persons in the labor force to the total population 15 years old and over, shows a slight improvement of one percent.

Poverty Incidence in 2021 was 19 percent and is targeted to decrease at 9 to 12 percent in 2023.

The region’s fully immunized population is at 93.65% as of August 31, 2022 which contributed to the increased confidence of companies and employees in the opening or reopening of businesses, which improved the sector’s performance as a result of the tourism industry’s revival.

For four consecutive months, the prices of basic goods in Western Visayas region have been more expensive than the national average as the inflation rate jumped to 7.4 percent in August 2022.

“I am confident that the people of Western Visayas, with the support of our newly elected officials together with the regional line agencies and the private sector, we will be able to sustain and even accelerate our growth further leaving no one behind.” Casing concludes.

This is the first full council meeting of Mayor Albee Benitez in his term, as RDC’s Chairman in waiting.
(Source: Bacolod City Public Information Office)

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