Zamboanga City (September 27) -- The Brunei Darussalam, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines – East ASEAN Growth Area (BIMP-EAGA) targets the implementation of more development initiatives in the sub-region with the conduct of the BIMP Investment Conference (BIMP iCon) on October 22 to 23 at the Marco Polo Hotel, Davao City.

A number of viable investment projects and project ideas will be matched with prospective partners and/or with development partner institutions for technical or funding assistance.

These development partners include the Asian Development Bank (ADB), German Technical Cooperation (GTZ), and Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID). Priority will be given to projects that will boost the growth of natural resources, tourism, transport, infrastructure, communication, or small and medium enterprise (SME) sectors in the sub-region.

Trade and Industry Assistant Secretary Merly M. Cruz, who also sits as the Philippine Senior Official to the BIMP-EAGA, said this mechanism will give the sub-region the much-needed opportunity to realize its plans of furthering the growth of its member-countries.

"I'm encouraging everyone who has good projects in mind to submit these to the Department of Trade and Industry – National Economic Research and Business Assistance Center (DTI-NERBAC) Davao on or before October 15 so that we can already pre-match them with the right partners," she said.

The BIMP iCon is among the highlights of the upcoming 15th Senior Officials & 12th Ministers' Meeting in Davao City and will convene the different stakeholders and development partners of the sub-region.