Tuesday, October 23, 2007 Brussels, Belgium wants to be sister province of Cebu
THE government of Brussels, Belgium wants to be a sister province of Cebu.
Brussels Gov. Dominique Paulus de Chatelet plans to visit Cebu in January, in time for the Sinulog.
If plans push through, a “sisterhood agreement” may be signed by then, said lawyer Manolette Dinsay, Capitol consultant on promotions and international affairs.
“Barring any extraordinary circumstances, I don’t see any reason why not,” said Dinsay of a possible signing of an agreement.
Dinsay apprised the media yesterday of Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia’s trade mission to France and Germany last Oct. 4 to 8.
In the same trip, Dinsay visited Chatelet in Brussels. It was there that Chatelet conveyed her interest in Cebu.
She was particularly interested in the areas of trade, tourism and health, said Dinsay.
Trade, tourism
Trade and tourism were also the main topic of the governor’s mission in France, organized by the Philippine-France Business Council and sponsored by the Makati Business Club. The Provincial Government was the trade mission head.
On the first day of the trip, Garcia and the other delegates visited the Airbus facility in Toulouse, France, where they were shown the largest commercial aircraft in the world, the Airbus 380 worth US$350 million.
The next day, the Philippine-France Business Council meeting was held in Paris.
Former finance secretary Roberto de Ocampo spoke about the macroeconomic conditions of the Philippines, while former trade secretary Cesar Purisima discussed business process outsourcing.
Also, former energy secretary Vicente Perez talked about energy investments during the meeting and Garcia discussed tourism and investment attraction and government enterprise.
Bad signal
Garcia earlier said she is keen on selling Cebu and blew her top when the Lapu-Lapu City government closed the Marina Mall for nine hours last Friday, saying, “This is a very bad signal to our investors who right now are very interested to come to Cebu.”
On the part of the French delegates, they talked about the business climate in the Philippines and business experiences.
The mission also included a tour to the residence of renowned artist Leonardo Da Vinci and Vergnet Facility, a manufacturer of modern windmills, in Orleans, France.
On Oct. 7-8, the tour proceeded to Germany.
The delegates also visited a fashion accessory boutique located in Luxembourg called Konplott. The accessories were manufactured in Cebu through its subsidiary Cebu New Century Accessory Inc. (JGA)
