Friday, December 19, 2008 4 Kapamilyas grace Clinton Global Meet
LOPEZ Group of Companies Chairman Oscar Lopez, Knowledge Channel Foundation Inc. (KCFI) President Rina Lopez-Bautista, ABS-CBN News and Current Affairs Head Maria Ressa, and singer-actress KC Concepcion played key parts in the prestigious Clinton Global Initiative Meeting at the Grand Hyatt in Hong Kong.
In the event, world leaders discussed various global issues such as education, energy, climate change, and public health.
Lopez, in his speech, reiterated the Lopez Group's commitment to pursue corporate social responsibility projects that will improve the lives of the marginalized especially in relation to environment and education.
He also announced a donation of almost P420 million as the groups "commitment to action."
Bautista, on the other hand, shared the success story of KCFI on using educational TV in public schools during the education working session titled "Bridging Digital and Learning Divides."
It received the highest commendations from former US President Bill Clinton who also chose the project as one of the six models of commitment he presented at the closing ceremonies. Clinton added that KCFI's program must be replicated on other countries as well.
Meanwhile, Ressa served as one of the panel discussion moderators for the session "Building Prosperity and Diversity" alongside the president of Mongolia, Nambaryn Enkbayar, and the president of the Democratic Republic of Timor Leste, Jose Ramon-Horta.
This year, the CGI meeting also paid tribute to popular movie stars and personalities supporting a noble cause in the likes of Michelle Yeoh of Malaysia, Hong Kong action star Jet Li, and KC Concepcion representing the country.
KC is the current United Nation's World Food Programme National Ambassador together with Korean actor Jang Dong-gun. She is committed to raise awareness and support for WFP and positively impact over 71,000 pupils from 426 schools in the country thus, Clinton referred to her as the "ambassador against hunger in the Philippines."
ABS-CBN is the only media organization in the Philippines invited to participate in this first and last meeting to be held outside America.
CGI Asia Meeting was organized by the Clinton Foundation which was established in 2005 as a non-partisan organization headed by Bill Clinton. It gathers leaders from business, government, civil society, and philanthropic organizations and provide opportunity for them to take action and solve the region's most pressing issues. (Press release)
