DTI-DPWH Convergence Program: On Road Connectivity for Industry and Trade Development Roads Leveraging Linkages for Industry and Trade (ROLL IT) Program
Department of Trade and Industry
November 29, 2016
The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) and the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) signed a Memorandum of Agreement on November 29, 2016 at the Makati Shangri-La to create a Convergence Program on road connectivity for industry and trade development. This MOA creating the Convergence Program will be one of the strong platforms of the promise of a Golden Age of Infrastructure for the Philippines by the Duterte Administration, through a target of national infrastructure budget of 7% of Gross Domestic Product, roughly equivalent to around Php 8.2 Trillion.
The MOA aims to establish the working arrangement between the DTI and the DPWH to jointly undertake the planning, budgeting, advocacy for legislation, identification, evaluation, prioritization, regulation, supervision, implementation, and monitoring and evaluation (M&E) of industry-developing infrastructure projects in priority economic and manufacturing zones in the Philippines.
About the DTI-DPWH Convergence Roads Leveraging Linkages for Industry and Trade (ROLL IT) Program
The program will also be called the Roads Leveraging Linkages for Industry and Trade (ROLL IT) Program. It is envisioned that 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 the Duterte Administration (2016-2022).
The ROLL IT Program 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 ROLL IT Program is anchored and consistent with President Duterte’s mandate, AmbisyonNatin 2040 (Executive Order 05, s. 2016), which envisions a predominantly middle-class society with enhanced standards of living, and aims to eradicate hunger and poverty. This initiative of the DTI and DPWH is intended to contribute in delivering the twin promises of the Duterte Administration of accelerated infrastructure development and inclusive economic growth. Through better road infrastructure connecting the industries, industrial and regional development strategy can be realized and these 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.
Consistent with their respective mandates, the two agencies are also guided by the Export Development Act, the SME Act, and the DTI-Board of Investments Comprehensive National Industrial Strategy (CNIS) .
The creation of the Program is also timely because by 2017, the DPWH would have paved most of the national roads and made permanent the national bridges. This would create the opportunity to utilize the projected substantial increase in the budget for infrastructure into the development of complementary networks of regional and local roads that will connect to, and optimize the use of, the improved national roads system.