Chamber, WB backing province's ecozone bid

The Cebu Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the World Bank's International Finance Corp., the German Technical Corp. (GTZ) and are supporting Cebu 's bid for a province-wide special economic zone.

CCCI president Francis Monera said that the chamber is currently conducting an extensive feasibility study on the advantages and disadvantages of the matter.

The board of directors of CCCI passed a resolution last April creating a group to study and evaluate the viability of converting and proclaiming the entire province as an economic zone.

Monera said the GTZ and WB-IFC have extended a budget allocation support of more than Euro 10,000 to 20,000, (around P600,000 to P1.2-million) for the study and they will also provide foreign technical experts in tandem with the local experts on economic zones setting in the Philippines to focus on the study.

"I just attended a conference in Bangkok, Thailand, with development partners and representatives from various developing countries. There were verbal agreements made that GTZ and WB-IFC will join hands in helping to push the Cebu EcoZone project initiative," Monera saidd.

The result of the study will provide stakeholders the government the necessary data and information to support and justify Cebu's bid of a proposed proclamation making the entire province into a special economic zone. - Gregg M. Rubio/BRP