TO MAKE sure the activities of this year’s Cebu Business Month in June are well-attended, the Cebu Chamber of Commerce and Industry is engaging in an intensive information campaign. Officially launched last Friday, overall chairperson Francis Dy said the activities they have lined up are expected to benefit Cebu’s economy and most businesses and not just those of their members.
He thought of the theme “Glocalized Cebu” with the small and medium enterprises in mind, saying he hopes to encourage this sector to take advantage of opportunities presented to them by the Asean Economic Community.
Best practices
Dy said being glocal means taking the best practices worldwide to address local opportunities, or thinking global and acting local.
Their activities, he said, mean to integrate the best of what the world has to offer with the local talent. He said that as CCCI’s aim is to become the engine of Cebu’s growth towards global competitiveness, the organization is proposing a glocalization strategy.
He said businesses today need to network with Asean neighbors and create alliances and joint ventures. “The world is now characterized by open borders. We need to focus on making a competitive advantage as a city and as a region for long-term sustainability.”
CCCI president Ma. Teresa Chan said she is confident that Cebu businesses will succeed in establishing local and global linkages within the Asean region and those beyond its borders through the CBM. “It is one of the most successful business activities in Cebu, being an institutionalized, month-long celebration,” she said during Friday’s launch.
Dy said preparations began as early as September last year. During the launch, he introduced the different members of the organizing committee and gave a preview of the list of activities for the whole month, all of which are aimed at promoting four major thrusts--information and communications technology and business process management (ICt-BPM), tourism, entreprneurship and creative industries.
Highlights
Some of the highlights include the ICT and BPM Conference and Expo, the launching of the Cebu International Film Festival and International Documentary Film Festival, Entrepreneurship Conference, Technology and Innovation Expo, Cebu International Travel Fiesta, Glocalized Tourism Forum, the Southeast Asian Creative Cities Network Forum, Visayan Pop Song Writing Competition, Cebu Blogging Summit, New Media Awards and the Technotour Amazing Adventure Challenge.
Tourism chairperson Cenelyn Manguilimotan said the Technotour Amazing Adventure Challenge is one of the “most aggressive” activities they came up with. It combines the reality TV show The Amazing Race with the Suroy-Suroy Sugbo. Manguilimotan explained that the activity makes tourists experience Cebu’s countryside through technology. If this first activity succeeds, they hope to make it an annual event.
For her part, Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) Cebu Provincial Director Nelia Navarro, who is the also the chairperson for creative industries, said the Creative Council of Cebu is taking the lead in this year’s Southeast Asian Creative Cities Network (SEACCN) Forum.
Cebu represents the Philippines in the network, along with other secondary cities of Chiang Mai; Penang, Malaysia; and Bandung, Indonesia.
Community
“I want us to be excited and proud to be part of this community,” Navarro said, adding that this year’s theme is an appropriate platform for the exchange of knowledge and best practices among Southeast Asian countries.
As for the ICT-BPM activities, vice chair Anthony Noel said they are expecting top speakers from the field to be present during their two-day conference. Aside from top companies, they will also be tackling home-based outsourcing operations, the rise of e-commerce and digital security.
Dy hopes that they are able to offer an avenue for local, national and global players to promote trade and tourism products, services and technology and a platform to establish networks of local interactions and global connections.