UNITED States Ambassador to Manila Sung Kim highlighted the importance of land tenure security and promised to continuously support the Philippines in unlocking the potential of land to stimulate investment. The coalition called for the adoption of a sustainable land governance to address the country’s land sector development concerns, saying that woes in land registration is setting back the Philippine economy. “Secured land rights is important to investment,” Heath Cosgrove, director of USAID’s Land Tenure and Resource Management Office, added. “Insecure land rights are costly to investors.”Nearly half of the Philippines’ land parcels remain untitled, according to Calixto Chikiamco, president of Foundation for Economic Freedom. Kim said the Duterte government has given priority to land tenure security and efficient land management and administration in its zero plus ten-point socio-economic agenda.

Source: Manila Times February 08, 2017 16:06 UTC