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Saturday, June 04, 2005
International players join Cebu Biz Month
This year’s staging of the Cebu business commu-nity’s annual trade and investment festival is gearing up to be its biggest production ever, attracting attention from national and international players alike.
During the grand salvo of the Cebu Business Month (CBM) 2005 yesterday at the Ayala Activity Center, CBM 2005 overall chairman Francis Monera said this year’s event could not be compared to the previous year’s events because one of its activities alone, the Cebu ICT 2005 international conference and exhibition, is already a very big event in itself.
The Cebu ICT 2005, which will take place on June 22 to 24 at the Waterfront Cebu City Hotel and Casino, will have big names in information technology as speakers, including Datuk Dr Mohamed Arif Nun, chief executive officer of Malaysia’s Multimedia Development Corp., developer and operator of that country’s Multimedia Super Corridor, and Kiran Karnik, president of the National Association of Software and Service Companies, an umbrella organization of information technology software firms in India.
The information and communications technology (ICT) congress is expected to draw 500 to 800 delegates, said Monera, who is senior vice president of Cebu Holdings Inc.
He told Sun.Star Cebu that President Gloria Arroyo’s recent declaration by presidential proclamation of June as ICT Month jives well with the CBM activities.
During yesterday’s grand salvo, the three-day Amazing Job Race also opened at Ayala Activity Center. The job fair is for those wanting to find work in Cebu’s call centers.
Monera said the ICT congress had attracted more attention this year in part because the congress was launched in Makati “with all the ICT organizations and in conjunction with the Commission on ICT.”
A series of roadshow presentations in Asia last March by the Cebu Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCCI), which is spearheading the CBM, also helped generate international support for the event.
Cebu ICT 2005 chairman Bonifacio Belen said the presentations stirred the interest of major ICT players in Bangalore, Hyderabad, Singapore and Hong Kong.
“And as a result, many foreign delegates have committed to participate in the event,” he said in a statement.
Belen reported that officials of the Hong Kong Trade and Development Council were so receptive that “they provided us with a booth during their International Expo, which is a well-known ICT event conducted every April.”
To reciprocate, a booth will be given to the council at the Cebu ICT 2005 (www.cebuict2005.com).
The Japan External Trade Organization Manila said it will have a booth during the event, together with the Philippine National IT Standards Foundation Inc.
The CBM’s Monera also reported that all the booths were already taken for the SME Link Cebu 2005 slated for June 16-18 at the SM City Cebu Trade Hall.
The SME Link and the SME Industry Forum on June 17 are the CCCI’s ways of helping small and medium enterprises meet large corporations to whom they may be able to supply products and services.
A regional tourism congress will also be held on June 24 at the Grand Convention Center.
CCCI president Robert Go said the event now known as the CBM was first
celebrated in 1991. It was formally launched as Cebu Business Week, an annual business festival, in 1994. In 1996, it was expanded to cover the entire month of June.
This year, however, with its ambitions of making Cebu a player to reckon with in the global stage, the CBM started in February with its launch at the Glorietta Mall in Makati City. The CBM is supported by the local government and the private sector. (CTL)
(June 4, 2005 issue)
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