Under Developed Rich Natural Resources

When you're at Metro Manila, it is difficult to see the rich natural resources of the Philippines. So many people, buildings, factories and houses. It is very rare that we see a vacant lot much more an open space. This is further strengthen when you go outside either north or south. On the north, you will see endless rice fields because it leads to Central Luzon, the main Rice Producing Region of the Philippines. On the south, are large manufacturing facilities of Calabarzon, the CAvite, Laguna, Batangas and Quezon Special Economic Zone. Two to three hours away by car, it would seem that land is well used and there are few unutilized space. But that is because you're passing through the main roads where most of the development is centered.

However, if you take a plane, you'll see the large undeveloped areas of the Philippines. There are cities, residential, commercial and industrial areas but they cover not more than 10% of the land. Further away, in the islands of Visayas and the Mountains of Luzon, this percentage goes down to less than 5% of the land area. For all our economic crisis and problems, we could possible be using less than 25% of our natural resources.

If we could increase this resource utilization by just 10%, we could increase our economy by almost 50%. But this doesn't happen because these natural resources are in the rural areas. This is the reason why we need to refocus our economic activities away from urban centers. It is not just to get away from the crowd and the pollution, our true wealth is in the rural areas and we are not utilizing it.

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If you have other ideas on untapped Filipino natural resources and want to or have ideas how to fully utilize them, please contact Rodec through LinkedIn, http://www.linkedin.com/in/rodec. Let's LINKED IN..