PARANG, Maguindanao, Philippines – Officials of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) alongside stakeholders launched the construction of a barter trade center designed to beef up the operations of the infant Polloc Freeport facility here and boost the economy of the ARMM.

ARMM Executive Secretary Naguib Sinarimbo, representing ARMM acting Gov. Ansaruddin Alonto Adiong led the groundbreaking rites on a 800-square meter space inside the port compound here where construction for the one-storey barter trade edifice kicked off promptly for completion within this month, port manager Moharrim Mohammad said.

Mohammad said the P7 million funding for the proposed building is sourced from the special projects fund of Adiong, who is credited for his issuance of an edict declaring the Polloc wharf a regional Freeport upon his takeover of the ARMM leadership in December 2009.

“The edifice will contain 36 stalls, each of which spanning three-meter by four-meter with built-in small office and comfort room,” he said.

To ensure an ideal maintenance of the facilities, he said, the stalls will be leased at “minimal rate” to barter traders participating in the Freeport trading activities spurred by the regular voyages of cargo ships between the Polloc’s regional economic zone and East Asian states.

At the groundbreaking rites, Sinarimbo echoed Adiong’s appeal to traders in the autonomous region to bond together and harness fully the ARMM’s trade links with Brunei, Indonesia, and Malaysia.

An ARMM trade delegation had forged last December a business tie-up with the business council of Sabah, Malaysia.

Sinarimbo said the Polloc Freeport, which is Mindanao’s lone Freeport facility, is strategically located in the Asia-Pacific rim and offering extraordinary tax incentives for local and foreign traders.