The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) and Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) Region 1 rolled out the new convergence program that would promote economic growth and infrastructure development in the region.
The Roads Leveraging Linkages for Industry and Trade or ROLL IT Program aims to further the growth of investments and other economic activities in the country through more road projects leading to manufacturing and economic zones.
Launched in November 2016, the two government agencies signed a memorandum of agreement (MOA) for the ROLL IT project implementation on road connectivity for industry and trade development. Under the agreement, DTI will identify areas where industry sectors need road facilities and connectivity.
The ROLL IT Convergence Program will be one of the strong platforms of the promise of a Golden Age of Infrastructure for the Philippines, through a target of national infrastructure budget of 7% of Gross Domestic Product, roughly equivalent to around P8.2 trillion.
Present during the ROLL IT launching were representatives from the Board of Investments (BOI), supporting non-government organizations (NGOs), United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Advancing Philippine
Competitiveness (COMPETE) Project. A total of 21 project proposals to be enrolled in the program were submitted to USAID-COMPETE for evaluation. Most of proposals concern the conduct rehabilitation and construction of access roads from manufacturing sites to marketing areas.
The ROLL IT Program will further fuel the recent high growth of domestic investments as well as the surge in foreign direct investments of the country, through more road projects funded within 2016-2022.
The ROLL IT program’s goal is to prioritize infrastructure development in the country. It will leverage on the success and experiences of the DOT-DPWH Convergence Program or the Tourism Road Infrastructure Program (TRIP) that lead to the upgrading of roads leading to tourist destinations.
The initiative of DTI and DPWH is intended to contribute in delivering accelerated infrastructure development and inclusive economic growth.
Through better road infrastructure connecting the industries, industrial and regional development strategy can be realized and will further facilitate balanced development, dispersal of industries away from urban areas towards the rural areas, creating more job and income opportunities to more Filipinos.