ANNUAL

continued from page 15(EABER) based at the Australian National University.The EABER is an organization that conductseconomic research on issues facing the economies ofEast Asia. It has 16 member-institutions from Japan,China, South Korea, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos,Thailand, Malaysia, the Philippines, Indonesia, andAustralia. continued from page 15discussion-forum on participatory rural appraisal/participatory needs assessment for research problemdiagnosis and prioritization conducted by theProvincial Government of Camiguin. Another is thetraining and installation of a citizen’s feedbackmechanism by the City Government of Butuan.To increase public awareness on the importance ofpolicy research as well as this year’s DPRM activities,representatives from the Leagues of Municipalities andProvinces, Local Government Academy, and GalingPook also joined PIDS officials in a series of guestingsin select radio and TV news and public affairs shows.Held on November 23-24, about 37 high-level foreigneconomists from 13 countries participated in theinternational conference on “Advancing East Asianeconomic integration: microeconomic foundations ofeconomic performance in East Asia.” The conferencehad presentations and discussions on issues relevant tomicroeconomic policymakers in East Asia such asregional cooperation of institutions for the regulationof markets and the macro developments in thePhilippines and Korea.The culminating activity of the 4 th DPRM is the forumon local level sustainable upland development. Thesteering committee decided on this topic as it is one ofthe biggest challenges facing many LGUs especiallythose that are located outside of the country’smetropolises.PIDS 2006 ANNUAL REPORT16Held on September 26, the highlight of the forum wasthe presentation of selected best practices onsustainable upland development by Mayor GivelMamaril of the municipality of Malalag in Davao delSur, and Congressman Rodolfo Agbayani, formergovernor of the province of Nueva Vizcaya. For theirpart, the Institute’s researchers and officials gavepresentations on some of the projects the Institute hasinitiated or cooperated with other agencies to helplocal governments in crafting useful and relevantdevelopment policies for their respective localities.This year’s DRPM celebration had more than 60institutions participating, the biggest so far since theDPRM started in 2002. This high turnout onlyindicates that the importance of policy research isprogressively getting into the public consciousness.Finally, toward the end of the year, the Institute playedhost for the first time to an international conferenceof the East Asian Bureau of Economic ResearchMEDIA EXPOSUREThe Institute had 134 media exposures in 2006. Theprint media, notably national dailies such asBusinessWorld, Business Mirror, Manila Bulletin, andPhilippine Star, remain as the Institute’s most activepartners in research dissemination. Annex E lists allthe media exposures in 2006. •