Tuesday, December 19, 2006 CCCI to send group to US for trade talks
THE Cebu Chamber of Commerce and Industry will be sending a trade mission to Daly City in California, USA next month to start joint economic undertakings with its counterpart chambers of commerce.
The mission will leave on Jan. 22, 2007 for the kick off of a series of discussions abroad with the chambers’ Business Development and Management Service Division.
Dubbed “Dali Na, Sa Daly City,” the trade mission encourages the participation of small and medium enterprises with products and services complementing Daly City’s retail and medical services sectors.
Preparations
Preparations by the various committees are now being undertaken to organize a fitting representation of Cebu’s business community.
Cebuano businessmen are interested on Daly City because of its large Asian population. Around 50 percent of its residents are of Asian descent and a lot of them are Filipino.
Daly City’s retail and medical services sectors account for a huge chunk of the business activity in the city.
Program
Under the stewardship of Mayor Michael Guingona, Daly City is also heavily promoting small business development through the city’s economic development program.
Daly City boasts of approximately 3.1 million square-feet of retail space, including the Mission Street retail corridor bordering San Francisco, the Ser-ramonte Center, the t Westlake Shopping Center and the Pacific Plaza mixed-use office, cinema, retail and hotel project.
The Seton Medical Center, a medical facility in the US, is reportedly the city’s largest employer with 1,500 employees.
It has encouraged the development of additional clinics and laboratories adjacent to the hospital, such as the Seton Medical Office Center, San Francisco Heart Institute, the Spine Care Medical Group, the San Francisco Neuro-Skeletal Imaging Center, the Physician’s Medical Center and the Kaiser Permanente.
Courtesy
To ensure the success and order of the trade mission, the working committee, through the sponsorship of the Centre for International Education, sent project head Marylou Tan-Wong to the US last Oct. 30 to Nov. 4 for a courtesy visit.
She also met with officials of the Chamber of Commerce of Daly City–Colma led by its president Georgette Sarles. (PR)
