The Cebu Chamber of Commerce and Industry will focus on three priority areas— ICT/BPOiInformation communication technology/business process outsource), tourism and entrepreneurship—for this year’s Cebu Business Month (CBM) celebration.
Virgilio Espeleta, CBM overall chairman, said the chamber would need a P13- million budget for the monthlong CBM, which was launched yesterday at the Marco Polo Plaza Cebu Hotel.
Espeleta said this year’s theme “Business Beyond Boundaries” aims to deliver new topics that will equip Cebu’s industry players with skills and knowledge that would compete not only at the national but also global level.
“We aim to improve entrepreneurship by capitalizing on creativity and innovation (for entrepreneurs) to compete both in the national and global arena,” he said.
Jerry Rapes, ICT/BPO committee chairman, said they would partner with the local government and the sector’s major stakeholders to maintain the business momentum and investment confidence in the industry especially with Cebu’s emerged status in the Tholons report last year.
“We will again have Cebu ICT and BPO Conference on June 8 at Radisson Blu Hotel with the theme ‘Cebu’s roadmap for sustaining the growth in ICT and BPO’ with discussions focusing more on the newly launched ICT and BPO roadmap created by the City of Cebu and CIPC (Cebu Investment Promotions Center). We’ll try and discuss on what are the things that need to be done to support and realize the three- to five-year roadmap,” said Rapes.
Tess Chan, tourism committee chairperson, for her part, said the Tourism Congress on June 24 would carry the theme “Tourism Beyond the Usual” and would emphasize the latest developments in the tourism industry, like the Open Skies policy, and how these would affect Cebu players and how they could prepare and maximize the new policy.
“This year’s congress is a little different from the usual. The first half of the day will be an interactive discussion linking the national and regional tourism development programs by the Department of Tourism and the province of Cebu. DOT Secretary Alberto Lim will be presenting the national tourism plan highlighting the Open Skies policy while Cebu Gov. Gwen Garcia shall focus on the tourism thrusts of the province highlighting investment and promotions,” she said.
Chan said success stories from Camarines Sur delegates, Palawan and Boracay would also be presented during the event while the afternoon would be dedicated to ecotourism tours.
“The evening will be Cebu City’s and HRRAC’s (Hotel Resort and Restaurant Association of Cebu) turns to present their tourism programs like the Pockets of Beauty and the preparation for the celebration of Cebu’s proclaimation as City of Culture come July,” she said.
Nelia Navarro, Department of Trade and Industry provincial director and chairman of the Entrepreneurship committee, said the first Cebu Creative Industries Summit would be on June 21 and 22.
Navarro said the summit would have the theme “Entrepreneurship Interface with Creativity and Innovation” following the recent announcement from the ASEAN Ministries of Culture proclaiming Cebu as the City of Culture, which will be awarded on July.
“The two-day summit aims to promote the exchange of knowledge and approaches to creative entrepreneurship and techno-preneurship. It’s a value to learn creative and innovative strategies for business excellence, growth and global competitiveness,” she said.
As of Wednesday, Espeleta said the Cebu Provincial government and the Cebu City government had given P5 million in cash assistance for the CBM.
“The Cebu Province has committed P3-million assistance while the Cebu City pledged P2 million assistance funds. We still have a long way to go to achieve our target budget and we are confident that with the help of our corporate partners, we can pull this off successfully,” he said.
This year’s Cebu Business Month will be opened on June 1 with an opening salvo in the Ayala Terraces and an exhibition of CCCI’s achievements and initiatives also in Ayala Center Cebu until June 4. It will be a full-packed month with the second week dedicated to ICT/BPO-related events, third week for emerging industries and environmental businesses, while the fourth week will host the conferences and exhibitions.
The event will then be concluded with the awards and recognition night or the Grand Chamber Awards and Fellowship Night on June 30 at the Radisson Blu Hotel.