CEBU, Philippines (PIA) — The Local Governance Support Program (LGSP) of the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) has recently organized the Regional Economic Transformation Team (RETT) to assist local government units (LGUs) in their economic development initiatives.

DILG-7 Regional Director Pedro Noval, Jr., in his opening statement during an organizational meeting and planning conference at the Marco Polo Hotel last Friday noted the role of the various national government agencies (NGAs) and multi-sector collaboration in assisting local communities to be economically viable.

“If we develop the local barangays, we are, in effect, developing our country,” Noval said.

LGSP-Local Economic Development (LED) Program Coordinator Randy Alampay explained that the RETT was organized specifically to assist LGUs in crafting local economic development using local resources and creating well-being of local communities.

“This means more jobs, more businesses and increased incomes among micro and medium enterprises which comprise 92% of the local economy in the country,” Alampay said.

He said in developing the local economy, the public, business and NGO sectors in a specific locality can work collectively to create better conditions for economic growth and employment generation.

The LED framework positions alternative mechanisms for the national government agencies to assist LGUs in developing entrepreneurial leadership, systems and champions with business acumen.

Noval said the creation of the RETT is a better platform to improve LGUs entrepreneurship to become globally competitive.

The RETT is expected to support LGUs in a bundled approach to local economic development. It is also the delivery mechanism of the national economic transformation team for LGU-identified LED in the country, Noval added.

It will also promote greater LGU access to national government agencies’ services and facilitate or address gaps in project implementation as well as provide studies, research and financing to LGU-LED programs, he said.

According to Alampay there are four pilot LED programs in the country that the national, regional and provincial economic transformation teams will support.