AS THE end of the year approaches and the need to assess what have been accomplished must be done, those who are somehow involved in the programs must take a long pause.
Someone has to look back and make the taxing job of determining how things have truly turned out, whether those who did the job have done something to be proud of or not.
One report from the business community says that the Philippines is “becoming more
appealing to international participants of trade shows and expositions as the full integration of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) draws closer.”
This was according to an official of Worldbex International Services (WIS), a firm that specializes in events and exhibition.
The marketing director of WIS revealed that there are “a lot of investments coming in.” Investors see the Philippines as a big opportunity.
The marketing director of WIS, Jon Richmond Ang, was “at the sidelines of the opening of Philippine Building and Construction Expo (Philbex) at the Trade Hall of SM City Cebu.
WIS is said have organized its first trade event in 1996. The present one is said to be Asia’s biggest construction show so far. And the prospects of more events truly looms.
The WIS has brought in other events recently, like the Manila International Auto Show, Manila Food and Beverages Expo, the World Bazar Festival, Cebu Foods and Beverages Expo, Philbex and Cebu Auto Show.
The other day, the WIS did open CEFBEX, with 85 participating companies. The Cebu Auto show also had 100 exhibitors. It seems like there are a lot of foreign shows wanting to come to Cebu. The WIS director said they have been holding trade events in Cebu for eleven years now.
The heightened interest of international traders in the Philippines can be attributed to its “open market,” especially in the food industry where there are fewer restrictions on meat and alcohol compared to neighboring countries. And one additional factor is to be the proficiency of Filipinos to speak English.
The others that go in favor of this central island in the archipelago is its unique capability to push competitiveness among the participants, which would also somehow a welcome competitiveness in the market for their respective products.
Definitely, when Asean integration shall have happened, “a lot of foreign shows to the Philippines will use such group as the WIS “as a benchmark.”
Some three hundred exhibitors reportedly joined this year’s expo in Cebu, of the number, “20 percent are foreign companies, 50 percent are Manila enterprises, and the rest are from the Visayas.”
This affirms the fact of Cebu becoming a sort of business tourism paradise.