CCCI officially launches 15th Cebu Business Month

CEBU, Philippines -  The Cebu Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCCI) officially launches the 15th Cebu Business Month (CBM 2011) with a commitment to help business players not only from Cebu, but from neighboring cities and provinces in the Philippines, effectively take advantage the world business arena, via its theme “Going Beyond Boundaries.”

The month-long celebration has already gotten commitment of support including financial help from the Cebu City government, as announced by Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama, that the City will give P2 million for the event.

Although the Cebu Provincial government through Governor Gwendolyn Garcia, still has to officially announced how much it is going to give as financial help for the CBM 2011, the event's chairman Virgilio Espeleta said they already received word from Garcia that the provincial government will give P3 million financial support.

The event committee according to Espeleta will spend about the same level of budget last year of about P13 million, making sure that each event during the month-long celebration can generate its own revenue.

According to Espeleta, this year's CBM is all about engaging more business players to advocate and craft continuing and sustainable economically-inducing activities that will enable Cebu businesses to maximize their potential/

Committing to promote the three gflagship thrusts of the Chamber, the Business Process Outsourcing/Information Technology (BPO/IT), Tourism and Entrepreneurship—the micro, small and medium enterprises(MSMEs), Espeleta said the events that are lined up in these three sectors are carefully planned.

Moving forward, out of the usual comfort zones, is this year's common blueprint that will be tackled in each of the sector's summit, plenary sessions, seminars, forum, among others.

“It's business beyond boundaries because we are encouraging businesses to move to the next level regardless of what industry they are in. This business month hopes to inspire, enable and push businesses to move forward,” he added.

The BPO/IT component chairman Jerry Rapes said that the main thrust of the sector that will be magnified during the this month's BPO/IT Summit is is “actualizing the Cebu BPO/IT Roadmap,” where stakeholders, with the help of international industry experts will find out the effective solution on how Cebu could further grab a bigger bite in the US$125 billion BPO/IT industry worldwide.

For the Tourism sector, chairperson Teresa Chan said the upcoming “|Tourism Summit” will also tackle the opportunities that Cebu that take advantage of in the “Open Sky Policy”, as well as further exploring the unexplored destinations, and sites within the Cebu province.

Chan cited the “Suroy-Suroy sa Sugbu,” which was a concept introduced during CBM celebration long time ago, and now the program is sustained and developed by the Cebu Provincial government, will also be given a higher level approach, in coordination with Governor Garcia, and different Local Government Unit executives province-wide.

The Entrepreneurship component on the other hand, headed this time by Department of Trade and Industry Cebu Provincial Office (DTI-CPO) director Nelia F. Navarro will focus more on the development of Cebu's Creative Sector, although other sectors in the MSMEs will also be given importance.

Espeleta added that that the CBM Expo will serve as the meeting place of all industry players where in tourism, BPO/ICT or MSMEs. It will feature a job fair—open to all jobseekers, and a varied showcase of companies and organizations providing products, services, among others. (FREEMAN)