Palawan is preparing for open trade with neighboring countries in the East Asean Growth Area, particularly with Sabah and the Sultanate of Brunei Darussalam, the Provincial Information Office said recently.
To keep moving to the goal, the PIO said, the provincial government was working on the rehabilitation and expansion of facilities in Buliluyan Port in the southern Palawan town of Bataraza that would play a major role in the open trading.
The activities, the PIO said, were being done to accommodate vessels expected to sail the trade route from the province to Kota Kinabalu, Sabah.
The port development project was funded by “the Philippine Ports Authority [PPA] with a budget of P125 million” requested by Gov. Jose Alvarez.
According to the statement, the Buliluyan Port project was bidded out in February with Garnick Construction of Bulacan winning with a bid of P121 million.
The construction works are currently under way, the PIO said.
Expansion of port facilities involves the construction of a perpendicular platform at the tip of the existing port, and the erection of the loading/unloading dock for roll on-roll off vessels.
Additional facilities will also be installed for efficient port operations, the PIO added.
Once completed, the port will serve as the transit point for the movement of people, goods and services to and from Brunei-Indonesia-Malaysia-Philippines East ASEAN Growth Area (BIMP-Eaga) port destinations.
Further, the opening of the transport hub is expected to boost the local tourism industry with increased tourist arrivals notably from neighboring Kota Kinabalu, which is approximately eight hours from Palawan by sea.
The port will connect two World Heritage Sites in the sub-region.
The BIMP-Eaga is a sub-regional economic cooperation among developing economies in the East Asean (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) region, namely the states of Sabah and Sarawak and the federal territory of Labuan in Malaysia, the entire Sultanate of Brunei Darussalam, the provinces of North Sulawesi, Kalimantan, Maluku and West Papua in Indonesia and the island of Mindanao and the province of Palawan in the Philippines.
It covers an area of 1.6 million hectares and a population of 57.5 million people. It aims to strengthen multilateral trade and commerce, tourism, investments, culture and ease of movement of people within the sub-region.
