FOLLOWING the staging of the 5th Davao Investment Conference 2019, the Davao City Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Inc. (DCCCII) noted a bullish response from potential investors who wish to do business in Davao.

“Our main problem right now is, because of the heightened awareness we were able to develop during Davao Icon, we have an onslaught of requests now coming to the chamber, requesting for business matching,” DCCCII president Arturo Milan said Wednesday, June 26, during Habi at Kape media forum.

Among the business matching requests are from Hong Kong investors on June 27, Thailand investors on June 28, and Taiwanese investors on October with around 34 manufacturers to present products in the city, and Malaysian investors who are planning for a trade mission.

“Yesterday, we were visited by the Chinese who are interested to put up a manufacturing on electric bicycles, motorcycles and scooters,” Milan said.

“They were asking for some statistical data about of the market in Davao, Mindanao and Bimp (Brunei Darussalam-Indonesia-Malaysia-the Philippines) countries because they believed that Davao is the gateway for Bimp,” he added.

Davao Icon was held on June 20 to 21 at the SMx Convention Center, SM Lanang. Around 600 delegates attended, where over half are foreign businessmen and investors.

Milan said it was the first time that they had a big attendance of foreign delegates. Delegates attending the Davao Icon came from 18 countries with the help and support of other chambers like the European Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines (ECCP), Japanese Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines, among others.

DCCCII John Carlo Tria said some companies, which were not able to join the conference, still expressed interest on the potential business opportunities in the city.

“The challenge for the business communities now which we would like to share is, there will be more discussions on partnerships and we hope to help our business communities for this heightened interest,” Tria said. (LHC)