Tabuk City, Kalinga (10 July) -- City Mayor Ferdinand B. Tubban is set to make this town as the new economic frontier in Northern Luzon.

In his inaugural speech, Tubban gave focus on building stronger ties among stakeholders to "collectively build Tabuk City" as envisioned by the people.

He said that he plans to spend his first 100 days visiting the people "for a more in-depth (barangay) consultations" to empower and strengthening the BLGU with a more participative and responsive process.

"This way, we are institutionalizing an empowered, participatory, transparent and accountable form of development planning and local governance anchored on a stronger partnership of all stakeholders from both the public and private sectors in shaping our future," he said.

Part of his plan is building stronger ties between the city government and the academe, business sector and government line agencies.

"I look forward to stronger ties between the academe and my administration," he said disclosing that he plans to use the expertise of the Kalinga-Apayao State College as a research center to develop the agricultural sector of the city and other scientific research endeavors.

The private educational institutions he said will also be tapped in developing human resource through scholarship and skills training, and work as partners in promoting cultural development in the city.

His administration he said is also considering the establishment of a separate Schools Division for Tabuk City once the Supreme Court decides with finality favoring this town's cityhood.

The business sector, on the other hand, plays a "bigger role propelling economic development to improve and create business opportunities through tourism." He said that his administration will give priority in organizing a business council and a local tourism council with representatives from both the business and government sector.

These organizations, Tubban said will "serve as a fora to ventilate issues like the improvement of internal security, eco-tourism, festival development, and customer-friendly services giving emphasis on positive image building" for the city.

As a counterpart for this endeavor, he assured to give priority in establishing an investment friendly city through road and facility improvement, and enforcement of laws and city ordinances in improving the city's internal security, businesses transactions, and imposing a more efficient and effective revenue generation.

As a step to address possible problems brought about by the global warming, Tubban said that he will pursue the creation of a Local Power Corporation as initiated by his predecessor, City Mayor Camilo Lammawin Jr., to make Tabuk as a future power generator producing a more environment friendly energy.

"This is a critical step to fast track agri-industrialization and modernization," he said.

Part of his plans in preserving the environment will be the creation of a task force headed by the DENR and the KASC to make development plans for the protection of watersheds and rehabilitation of the City's mountains and forests using Sloping Agricultural Land Technology (SALT) scheme to address the survival needs of upland Tabukeños.

As the backbone of the city's economy, agriculture he said will be given priority attention through the improvement of farm-to-market roads and irrigation, subsidize vegetable, corn and palay, employment of rice and corn technologies to enhance production and increase farmer income while continuing to address and improve food security in the city.