SPEAKER Ferdinand Martin G. Romualdez on Sunday said broader partnership and cooperation among our neighboring countries presents an immense potential in spurring mutual economic growth that would create more jobs for our people.

“We support initiatives for enhanced cooperation and partnerships with our neighboring countries as key to unlocking the enormous potential for mutual growth and development that would generate gainful work and livelihood opportunities for Filipinos,” Romualdez said.

Romualdez made the statement on the heels of reports that the unemployment rate in the country increased to 4.5 percent in June with 233 million Filipinos available and looking for jobs.

The number of jobseekers rose by 159,000 from 2.17 million in May when the jobless rate was at 4.3 percent. But compared to June 2022 when the unemployment rate was 6 percent, the number of jobless Filipinos decreased by 663,000.

As the leader of the Philippine delegation to the 44th AIPA (ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Assembly) general assembly in Indonesia, Romualdez stressed during the gathering that the path to greater prosperity in the region is by greater regional cooperation and interdependence.

One such area of cooperation, according to Romualdez, is the effort to push forward the BIMP-EAGA Vision 2025, which could benefit the Philippines, particularly in terms of increased tourism arrivals and tourism-based jobs for our people.

Established in 1994, the Brunei Darussalam–Indonesia–Malaysia–Philippines East ASEAN Growth Area, or BIMP-EAGA, is a cooperation initiative to spur development in remote and less developed areas in the four participating Southeast Asian countries.

“With our country’s diverse cultural and natural attractions, we stand to benefit from the realization of the BIMP-EAGA Vision 2025.

Among others, this could help us attract more tourists from neighboring countries, leading to increased revenue in the tourism industry and providing jobs and livelihood to our people,” Romualdez said.

For this purpose, it calls for the adoption of more climate-resilient production practices and the development of subregional supply and value chains for priority commodities in the agriculture and fisheries sector.

On the other hand, the strategy for tourism under the BIMP EAGA Vision 2025 is to improve connectivity to tourist destinations, develop and support green ecotourism sites and provide sustainable tourism-based livelihoods.

Romualdez noted that while the country’s tourism industry is showing signs of strong recovery, with more than 3 million recorded arrivals of international visitors from January 1 to July 19, 2023, or over 500 percent higher than last year, it is still a far cry from the 8.2 million arrivals recorded in 2019.

“The House remains committed to supporting the growth of our tourism industry with its immense potential to spur development and to create jobs and livelihood for our people,” Romualdez said.

According to the Speaker, the House also supports the government’s agenda for infrastructure and digitalization initiatives that would boost the connectivity of tourism destinations and improve traveler convenience.

At the AIPA, Romualdez called for the holding of the first BIMP-EAGA Parliamentary Forum or BEPF in 2024 in Davao City in order to incorporate policy-making in BIMP-EAGA affairs.