THE American Chamber of Commerce (AmCham) of the Philippines Inc. is planning to put its satellite office in Western Visayas in Iloilo City to help investors doing business for the Philippines and United States of America and to create more jobs for people in the metropolis.
AmCham Executive Director Ebb Hinchliffe led the delegation that paid a courtesy call to Mayor Jose Espinosa at City Hall Monday, February 18, for the exploratory talks.
“We appreciate your initiative to include Iloilo City as your venue to put up your offices in other parts of the country. This will be of big help for businessmen especially that you will help them expand their businesses or help them put up their own businesses,” Espinosa said.
Espinosa said Iloilo City envisions to develop into Services, Manufacturing, Agri-business, Arts and Culture, Research and Technology, and Tourism (Smart) City of Excellence, and AmCham can help achieve the goal.
“We do not have a presence here in Western Visayas and so as one of the fastest growing areas in the country, it is time for us to look what is here and see what we can do to support the companies doing business in the United States and the Philippines. It will be a good chance to come down here,” Hinchliffe said.
“What we do is we promote business, we encourage companies to come in and invest to create jobs. Our focus is to get Filipinos many jobs and we are trying to get people out of poverty, and there are two ways to do that, and that is education and jobs. The more we can get jobs to the Philippines, we can get companies that are investing in America to invest in this country or expand like the Courtyard by Marriott,” Hinchliffe added.
AmCham will hold a meeting with American companies in Iloilo City on Tuesday, February 19, at Courtyard by Marriott.
Hinchliffe said he was impressed and surprised with the city’s development.
“I was here 26 years ago and there were only two stoplights and no highways. I have never seen a city that changes much over the short period of time as this city,” Hinchliffe said. (PR)