World trade deals to benefit the freight forwarding sector

CEBU, Philippines – Freight forwarding businesses see bright prospects in the coming years as world trade agreements open up various avenues and opportunities for trading and partnerships between markets around the world.

“There is a foreseen future for the forwarding industry because of the world trade agreements by the World Trade Organization,” said entrepreneur Carmel de Pio-Salvador, the managing director for Global Carrier Philippines, Incorporated.

She added that with the world trade agreements, there are a lot of areas in the world with zero tariffs.

“With zero tariffs, trading will be all the more readily accessible for businessmen around the world so there is really a big future for the forwarding business. Trading will also be a strong area for Cebuano companies at that,” said Salvador.

She said that at this point, although slightly challenged by the global economic crunch as attributed by the decreasing volume of trade shipments, there is still continued business for the forwarding sector.

“The industry and its players are still relatively fine. Although there has been a decrease in volume, but it is not zero so there is still a continuing business,” said Salvador.

She said that they are looking at influx of more investors to bring in export things to and from the country because this can sustain growth for the industry as well.

Salvador’s company Global Carrier Philippines, Inc. was one of the Philippine forwarding companies and the only Cebuano company who attended the recently held 6th Sino International Conference at the Asia World Expo in Hong Kong last June 11 to 14.

The 6th Sino International Conference gathered top independent international logistics companies from all over the world to network and explore opportunities for growth with existing and new business partners.

This conference was jointly organized by the China International Freight Forwarders Association (CIFA) under the leadership of the Ministry of Commerce of China and the World Cargo Alliance (WCA Family of Logistic Networks), the world’s most powerful organization of independent forwarders which represented the freight forwarders’ industry nationwide.      

Salvador said that around 1, 500 delegates from 140 countries and regions attended the said conference which featured sophisticated facilities for face-to-face networking via the so called one-on-one meetings scheduler.

She said that around 20, 000 individual face to face meetings took place during the conference using the meetings scheduler.

“With the conference, we were able to match up with other forwarders around the world so we were able to establish contacts with other forwarders for partnerships and by that we can now check products that are good in their respective locations,” said Salvador. 

Salvador is also the chairman of the Cebu Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCCI) Trade Mission to Macau which is leaving tomorrow.

Her company which is in line with international freight forwarding, customs brokerage and logistics is looking at possible business opportunities in transportation, logistics and trading in this new market since aside from business seminars and presentations, business matching and networking sessions will also be done between the CCCI trade mission delegates and companies who are doing business in Macau.