Outgoing
Regional Development Council XI (RDC) chairperson and Davao City Mayor Sara Z.
Duterte-Carpio said poverty incidence in the Davao Region was the lowest in
Mindanao but was saddened by the high poverty incidence of 28.8 percent as of
the first semester of 2012 which is a 1.7 percent increase from 2006.
However,
she noted that the Region has sustained the 95 percent employment rates for
both 2011 and 2012 which is evident of the expansion of the region’s absorptive
capacity for employment.
“Pero
pag medyo mataas ang poverty incidence and mataas ang rate ng employment, it
makes you wonder and we have to look into this,” she said,
Duterte-Carpio
said the planned targets for 2010 and 2011 were not achieved because of
identified risks and external shocks including the slower recovery of the US
and European economies that limit market options for banana exporters, high oil
and energy prices and the selling by the small-scale miners of their gold
produce in the black market.
“But
the Gross Regional Domestic Product levels had been increasing and the Region
has rebounded as the top economy among the six regions in Mindanao for 2011,”
she said.
She
admitted that the statistics on increasing poverty incidence is however evident
of the non-inclusive growth. But on the other hand, the creation of jobs aimed
at reducing poverty is an indication of inclusive growth which is why the two
conflicting statistics of increasing poverty incidence and employment growth
continue to puzzle economic workers in the region.
