Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Romulo L. Neri (right) stresses a point in the open forum of the Maritime Symposium 2005 at the Tejeros Hall of the AFP Commissioned Officers Country, Camp Aguinaldo, Quezon City. Neri, together with the president of the Filipino Shipowners Association, Mr. Carlos Salinas (left), presented their insights on the maritime sector and the economic development of the country. The NEDA Director General asserts that one of the important goals of the logistics sector, where the maritime industry belongs, is to reshape the country’s physical economic configuration to alleviate poverty, enhance peace and order, and strengthen national bonds and tourism through improvements in infrastructure and transport systems to make the movement of people and goods faster and cheaper.