BONGAO, Tawi-Tawi – Tawi-Tawi Gov. Sadikul Sahali expressed optimism that the province will soon be out from the so-called “Club 20” of the country’s poorest provinces as a result of the excellent economic plan drafted by local and national economic experts which has been adopted by the province thereby alleviating the poverty situation of the local residents.

Sahali issued the statement during the two-day 2nd Environment and Economic Summit that opened here Saturday.

Sahali said the Provincial Comprehensive Development Plan (PCDP), and the Executive and Legislative Agenda (ELA) became “our vehicle to push forward our vision of development for a Peaceful, Progressing and Prosperous Tawi-Tawi, integrating economic development initiatives with serious environmental management programs.”

Sahali accredited the economic development of the province to the Provincial Technical Working Group (PTWG) who initiated on September 16-17, 2006 the Tawi-Tawi 1st Environment and Economic Summit.

He said Tawi-Tawi is fortunate to have this only working model of partnership among local government units and national government agencies, civil society organizations and private sector, in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).

“Thanks to Pagtabangan BaSulTa Consortium of AIM Center for Bridging Societal Divides, who helped us strengthened this partnership,” Sahali said.

During the 1st Summit, he said “we sought the expertise of external institutions to help us prepare the summit design and mechanics and most of the resource speakers invited to share their expertise with us were from outside of Tawi-Tawi, three years after this historic occasion, it is now the Tawi-Tawians who are purely running this summit.”

Three years after, it is now the provincial government, led by our Vice-Gov Ruby Sahali-Tan, who now spearheads and runs this summit tagging the province’s motto “YES TAWI-TAWI CAN,” the governor said.

“We believe in our internal strength because we have many talented, dedicated, service-oriented men and women who are willing to volunteer their time, energies and expertise to help the government address the various societal divides that are the main cause of our poverty situation here,” he told participants.

The governor also assured that his government will continue to support the development of the Provincial Environment and Investment Code aimed at reaching a goal of transforming Tawi-Tawi into an economically developed province in this part of the country.