CCCI mulls more trade missions this year

CEBU, Philippines — The Cebu Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCCI) is mounting more overseas trade mission in 2024, re-affirming that Cebu is “open for business.”

CCCI president Charles Kenneth Co said that the plan to activate outbound trips to promote Cebu is prompted by the aggressive stance of other countries visiting Cebu starting especially last year 2023.

At least 16 in-bound meetings with dignitaries from different embassies like Canada, Sweden, Netherlands, Bangladesh, Denmark, European Union, India, Israel, Italy, Japan, Nigeria, Singapore and Sweden paid courtesy visits to CCCI last year.

Last November 2023, two business-to-business networking meetings occurred. One was with the Israeli business delegation comprising seven companies in the water sector followed by the India Business delegation comprising of 22 companies across several sectors in agriculture, frozen meat, pet food, pharmaceutical, medical instruments, automotive parts, clothing and textile and tiles and ceramics sector.

These B2B meetings were participated in by 144 representatives of 82 CCCI member companies.

Through the inbound missions, CCCI was able to connect its member-companies to foreign business owners looking for new markets to expand their business.

Likewise, CCCI also met with four newly appointed ambassadors—Ambassador Grace Cruz-Fabella for the Argentine Republic; Ambassador Pedro Ramirez Laylo Jr. for the State of Israel; Ambassador Medardo Antonio Gonzales Macaraig for the Republic of Singapore; and Ambassador Alfonso Ferdinand Agbayani Ver for the United Arab Emirates—to build connections and explore business opportunities to these countries.

Co mentioned that there are 80 countries all over the world and “we are just probably exporting to 10. There are other countries that we haven’t tapped yet.”

He emphasized that the talk with the new envoys would allow them to find out what opportunities await Cebuanos in the regions they represent.

CCCI is also seeking the envoys’ guidance in trade facilitation for business owners to be familiar with the trade regulations overseas, Co added. — (FREEMAN)