The Carlos Hilado Memorial State University (CHMSU) Alijis Campus in Bacolod City is now the host of the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) Negros Island Region office.
CHMSU signed the usufruct agreement with NEDA as the temporary headquarters of the line agency’s regional office in a ceremony at its Alijis Campus on Thursday, Feb. 6, a press release from the university said.
CHMSU President Norberto Mangulabnan and NEDA Negros Island Regional Director Arecio Casing Jr. signed the agreement in the presence of Undersecretary Carlos Bernardo Abad Santos, Vice President for Administration and Finance Rosalinda Tuvilla, NEDA 7 Regional Director Jennifer Bretaña, and chief economic development specialist Marlon Jinon.
The NEDA-NIR office is housed in Room 101, Academic Building 1 of CHMSU Alijis.
“We have to help each other in one way or another, especially now that we have a new region. We welcome NEDA to our humble school. Treat this place as your new home in NIR,” Mangulabnan said.
The university president also assured the economic development officials that CHMSU will be of assistance
Abad Santos thanked CHMSU for supporting the transition of the NEDA NIR office.
“This generous gesture of CHMSU shows how important the partnership between government and academe in the initial stages of administering and operating the different regional offices of line agencies,” the undersecretary said.
Casing said the NIR transition team is challenged to regain the economic development that was halved from Western Visayas after the establishment of the new region.
While Central Visayas still stands as a robust regional economy, Casing hopes to draw the spillover growth of the region to NIR. Currently, Negros Occidental has a larger economy compared to the other provinces in NIR.
“Our challenge is to create a synergy between Negros Occidental, Negros Oriental, and Siquijor,” he said, adding that they “aim to create a bigger sum, a bigger pie than the sum of its parts”.*