CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY, Philippines – Ministers and Senior officials from the Brunei Darussalam-Indonesia-Malaysia-Philippines East ASEAN Growth Area (BIMP-EAGA) were pushing key projects in the Philippines during their second day meeting of the of the 20th Senior Officials and the 16th Ministerial Meeting (SOMM) at this frontier and capital city’s hotel and convention center on Wednesday.

The dignitaries and delegates pushed key projects in the Philippines such as the hybrid rice seeds production, expansion of hybrid corn seed production and establishment of air linkages for Davao-Manado and Puerto Princesa-KK.

Other key programs for year 2012 and beyond and investment potentials and opportunities within the sub-region will also be tackled during the meeting.

The top BIMP-EAGA officials also pushed for the establishment of sea linkages for Zamboanga, Muara, Brooke’s Point-Labuan-Muara and Glan-Tahuna-Bitung routes, conduct of BIMP-EAGA Airlines Summit back-to-back with BIMP-EAGA Travel and Tourism Expo 2012, special arrangements for airlines servicing EAGA routes, like total waving of airport charges and overtime fees for a particular period of time until market becomes stable.

The meeting of the BIMP-EAGA here started on Tuesday (Oct. 18) where top officials of the national, regional, provincial and city in Mindanao participated.

The SOMM is an annual meeting of high-level officials and ministers of the four EAGA countries where strategic directions related to the sub-regional cooperation are to be tackled and agreed by them in consensus during four day gathering.

The objective in this gathering also aims to effect concrete outcome from several initiatives being undertaken to achieve the sub-region’s twin strategic vision of being the ‘food basket’ and the ‘premier ecotourism’ destination of ASEAN and the rest of Asia.

Aside from the usual high-level meeting, various activities are also lined-up in conjunction with this year’s SOMM.

Journalists, communicators and government information officers from across the member-countries also gathered in the BIMP-EAGA Media Forum to forge concerted efforts of communicating the initiatives and gains of the sub-regional cooperation.

Custom heads of the four member-countries met at the same location for the conduct of the BIMP-EAGA Heads of Customs Meeting where the priority projects and programs of the Task Force on Customs, Immigration, Quarantine and Security (CIQS) will be tackled.

The Senior Officials and delegates also graced the opening of the Oro Business Enterprise Services and Trade (OROBEST) Expo at the Atrium of SM Mall on Tuesday where the local products in Northern Mindanao were also showcased to encourage investors to do business in the region.

On October 20, the Senior Officials will likewise meet with China, Japan and the Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia (ERIA) to deepen engagements, particularly on some viable projects that can be undertaken jointly while the Ministers will meet with the business leaders to discuss the BIMP-Facilitation Center Implementation Blueprint and the Heart of Borneo, among others.

During the opening day of the meeting, Presidential Communication and Operations Office (PCOO) Secretary Sonny Coloma was the guest of honor and resource speaker.

Participants of this forum are Senior Information Ministry Officers and chief editors from the BIMP-EAGA-member countries.

BIMP-EAGA Communication Strategy and the establishment of a network of the BIMP-EAGA Media were the outcome of the forum.