LAGAWE, Ifugao — The establishment of an autonomous region in the Cordillera will hasten the development of the region into one of the country's tourism, agricultural, and industrial centers because of the existence of its rich natural resources which could be responsibly explored, utilized and development.

This was the belief of government and non-government organizations in this world heritage province during a recent information and education consultation relative to the renewed pursuit for regional autonomy being spearheaded by the Regional Development Council (RDC) in the Cordillera.

Juan Ngalob, regional director of the National Economic Development Authority (NEDA) in the Cordillera and RDC-CAR acting chairman, said the Cordillera had been lagging behind in terms of allocation of government resources over the past several decades, thus, the need to achieve self-governance so that the powers to determine the region’s development agenda would be decentralized to the autonomous regional government.