CCCI gears up for global market

The Cebu Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCCI) may have to change its charter to accommodate the changes on the chamber's vision and goals.

Under the leadership of its president Francis O. Monera, CCCI will form a new group to study the changes of the chamber's constitution.

"We need to gear up our organization to conform with international standard and competitiveness. A group within the board will have to study this plan carefully," said Monera during the CCCI year-end press briefing held at the City Sports Club.

Monera said the group will revisit the chamber's present structure. If there is a need to change some of the charter's provision, the new study group will have to formulate immediate changes to inject in the charter.

According to Monera, changing some of the chamber's charter may be very vital to the CCCI's role in today's changing economic texture that needed an international mindset and priorities.

"We need a unit within the structure that will handle international trade activities," Monera said emphasizing that the mindset of the chamber starting next year, is "to go global."

By doing this, he implied that the chamber's priority sectors, which are ICT (Information and Communication Technology), Tourism, and Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) will be brought to the higher level in global competitiveness bid.

Currently, there are four operating divisions that handle different activities of the chamber. These are the Business Development Division, Finance-Administration Division, External Affairs and Membership divisions.

Monera feared that if these divisions will not be complemented by a strong group to effectively handle the global activities, CCCI which has a growing 800 company members, will not be able to attain its goal to go global.

"We are going global in 2007," he said adding that every undertaking that will be done by the chamber next year, will have to involve a global sense.

After CCCI was able to outsmart over 200 chamber of commerce organizations around the country, as it was named as the "Most Outstanding Chamber in the Philippines," this year, Monera said the challenge lies on the organization's commitment to continually support its members, and the requirement right now, is to be globally competitive.

One infrastructure that will initially support CCCI's ambitious goal to market Cebu, and its members globally is the attainment of ISO certification just this year.

"CCCI now conforms to global standard of excellence. The challenge is we have to 'walk the talk'," he said.

Now, CCCI is the only chamber in the Philippines to have ISO 9001:2000 certification, and the fourth in the world.

Monera, however, provided limited information on the possible charter changes of the chamber, emphasizing that careful study has to be made first.

If this plan will be materialized, this is the first time in many years that CCCI will have to revise some of its charter provisions.