The port city of Puerto Princesa in Palawan will soon be connected by air to Kota Kinabalu, the capital of the Malaysian state of Sabah, according to Malacañang.
The establishment of an air link between the capital of Palawan province and Kota Kinabalu is part of the projects President Benigno S. Aquino III and other leaders of the Brunei-Indonesia-Malaysia-Philippines East ASEAN Growth Area (BIMP-EAGA) agreed to concretize during a meeting in Myanmar recently.
BIMP-EAGA leaders held their 10th summit on the sidelines of the 24th Association of Southeast Asian Nations Summit on May 10-11 in Yangon, the Myanmar capital.
“We have concretized what used to be just planned connections of roads, airports and ports among Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines under the Brunei-Indonesia-Malaysia-Philippines East ASEAN Growth Area or BIMP-EAGA,” Aquino said in his arrival statement upon returning from the summit on Sunday.
“For example, direct flights between Kota Kinabalu and Puerto Princesa have been established, and a memorandum of agreement has been reached between private companies for the setting up of a Davao-General Santos-Tahuna-Bitung shipping service,” Aquino said.
Aquino earlier mentioned these projects in his address to the ASEAN Summit.
“We are continuing efforts to operationalize the routes identified by the JICA-funded feasibility study on ASEAN RoRo routes under the master plan on ASEAN connectivity that includes the Davao/GenSan-Bitung route,” the President said.
He said such a link would spur trade, development of small and medium-scale enterprises and, consequently, empower communities in the Southern Philippines and Sulawesi, “opening the doors of opportunity for our peoples – and at the same time, providing a model for future initiatives to emulate and learn from.”
“With the help of this, investment, trade and tourism in our sub-region will be facilitated and sped up. The result will be a more energetic economy for the member countries and more opportunities for our citizens,” the President said.
BIMP-EAGA spans Brunei Darussalam; the Indonesian provinces of Kalimantan, Sulawesi, Maluku, West Papua and Papua; the states of Sabah and Sarawak, and the federal territory of Labuan in Malaysia; and Mindanao and Palawan.
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