The Ministries of Economic Development and Development, Infrastructure, and housing have partnered on a project to uplift and in some cases create agricultural and rural roads.
It's a project that seeks to build roads that are future-proof against oncoming climate disasters.
And today CEO Espat said that future-proofing had to be done by redesigning many of those roads for proper drainage and adequate, properly sized culverts
We spoke to both ministries CEO's today both their joint efforts.
Dr. Osmond Martinez, CEO for MED
"The signing of the MOA is very important for the Ministry of economic development in order to help to move the project on to implementation. The reason is because the project has a component of infrastructural development which is the constructions of roads. Those three roads are Valley of Peace, Trio, San Carlos and so it is very important to note that we do not have the experts in house but MIDH do have the engineers. They have the know-how and so it is important for us to work along with one another. This is a good example of inter-ministerial cooperation where we will work with whoever have the strength and we need it, so we should be able to work along with them."
Victor Espat, CEO for MIDH
In order to move the project forward, this has been a project that I believe has been in stagnation for quite a while and so, we are behind time and the clock is ticking. One of the commitments that has come from our ministry is the design component of three of these roads. One is the Valley of Peace road, the Trio road, and the San Carlos road. So, the Ministry of Infrastructure and Development has taken responsibility for the design of these three roads. I am happy to say that these designs will be done in-house by a team of our engineers that really affords us the opportunity to highlight the ability of our engineers. A lot of time these engineers are side-lined, and these designs are contracted out to foreign firms and other private entities but at the ministry, we've been focusing on capacity building and so our engineers will be the ones designing these roads. That will result in significant savings, the MIDH will also contribute these deigns so the project won't have to pay for the designs."
CEO Martinez confirmed that the in-house expertise of the MIDH would allow for hundreds of thousands of dollars to be passed on to the beneficiaries of these loans and grants. Many of those beneficiaries live below the poverty line in rural areas but have an interest in productive sector work.
He also expects the funds saved to help in fast-tracking the program.
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