Tawi-Tawi's first ever barter trade center launched

COTABATO CITY -- The capital town of Tawi-Tawi now boasts of a landmark barter trade center which local officials launched on Friday.The center, located at a strategic area in Bongao municipality, was constructed by the office of Mayor Jasper Que using municipal funds.Que said Gov. Mujiv Hataman of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao helped his office put up the two-storey building.Bongao is the capital town of Tawi-Tawi, the southernmost province of ARMM.Tawi-Tawi is a centuries-old barter-trading hub, where local traders have linkages with traders in nearby Sabah in Malaysia and other markets in the Malaysian and Indonesian territories.Que said he is thankful to the Hataman administration for helping the Bongao municipal government establish a barter trade center as a landmark outfit where to cluster together a big bloc of traders engaged in various businesses.The two-storey building has more than 40 stalls for grocery and dry merchandise dealers and 11 traditional coffee shops and small eateries.Que said the stalls in the trading center have all been awarded to applicants with duly approved business licenses.He said the funds spent for the construction of the facility was drawn from the 20 percent development appropriation of their municipal budget.The newly-constructed Bongao barter trade center is the first ever in Tawi-Tawi.