Japanese contingent crowds Manila retail expo

MANILA, Philippines - The Japanese delegation to the biennial 17th Asia Pacific Retailers Conference and Exhibition (APRCE) is making its presence felt at the biggest and grandest retail industry event in the region ongoing at the SMX Convention Center in Pasay City.

Philippine Retailers Association (PRA) president Lorenzo “Enchong” C. Formoso, COO of Duty Free Philippines, said the Japanese contingent could in fact be more than 500 – the biggest foreign delegation among the Federation of Asia Pacific Retailers Association (FAPRA) member economies – to the APRCE

“Every serious retailer in the Asia Pacific region now talks about the Manila APRCE, especially with the formidable line-up of speakers and well-thought-out topics the PRA team has prepared for the delegates. The strong global interest in the event is evident in the huge Japanese delegation,” Formoso emphasized.

Aside from the Japanese retailer-participants, Japan is also well represented in the panel of experts that was put together to render technical presentations at the 2015 APRCE edition.

Highly respected Japanese executives from Isetan Mitsukoshi Holdings Ltd., UNY Group Holdings Co. Ltd., Daiso Industries Co., Ltd, Family Mart Co., Ltd., Aeon Co. Ltd., Life Corp. Co., Ltd., and the Japan Ministry of Economy, Trade & Industry will be among the APRCE 2015 resource speakers.

 “The presence of these distinguished Japanese experts makes APRCE Manila 2015 a truly compelling event for our international attendees, especially those who want to learn from the retailing industry pillars of Japan, which is one of the most sophisticated and important markets in the world,” PRA chairman Frederick D. Go, Manila APRCE 2015 overall chair and president of Robinsons Recreation Corp., stressed.

Japan will also be represented at the “Retail Policy Forum: E-commerce: Changing the Game of Retailing” by Eigo Nomura, Director of Japan’s  Ministry of Economy, Trade & Industry’s Distribution and Retail Industry Division.

 The 17th APRCE Manila  is co-presented by the Tourism Promotions Board, The SM Store and Wyeth Nutrition. With Bench, Flight 001 and Penshoppe as platinum sponsors; Robinsons Malls and Ayala Malls, PLDT Alpha, Megaworld, Unilab, Mercury Drug as gold sponsors; Duty Free Philippines, HP, Wilcon Depot, Kojie-san, Celine, MET Tathione as silver sponsors; Araneta Center as bronze sponsor.

Other major sponsors include Philippine Airlines as official carrier; Mastercard as preferred card; Sportshouse and Heritage Multi-Office Products Inc. as sponsors; Solaire Resort & Casino Hotel as official partner hotel; Shook Kelley and IGD as special session sponsors; media Blitz Group as official Media and public relations group; Retail Asia as official international publication; Asia Pacific Travel Retail Association as partner organization: Fascin8, as official digital advertising partner; official newspaper – The Philippine STAR; official media partner – Business World; Retail Customer Experience, Asia Briefing, Inside Retail Asia and Oxford Business Group as digital media partners, and ABS-CBN News Channel/Shoptalk as broadcast media partner.