International summit eyed in Cebu

CEBU, Philippines — The Cebu provincial government is planning to organize a summit with international stakeholders in the medical field and the tourism sector.

During the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF 2024) last June 6, Garcia invited local officials and business leaders from St. Petersburg and Moscow, including the Russian air transport agency and independent travel agencies, to visit Cebu and attend the said forum.

The province intends to have the international gathering within the month-long celebration of the 455th Founding Anniversary of the Province of Cebu in August.

"This was only to include the tourism (sector), which should necessarily include FAATA (Federal Agency for Air Transport Agency) as well as our counterpart, which will be the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines, to include the travel agencies, the Russian airlines, because we are aiming for a direct flight from St. Petersburg to Cebu and vice versa," Garcia said while speaking before the SPIEF 2024 participants.

The governor is currently in Russia for her nine-day business trip for the renewal of the sisterhood agreement between the Province of Cebu and St. Petersburg and attended the SPIEF 2024, where she had the opportunity to have a dialogue with Russian and ASEAN business leaders.

She said the Cebu summit was originally for tourism stakeholders, but since Cebu officials have entered another memorandum of agreement with the top oncology center in St. Petersburg, the upcoming Cebu forum would also have meetings for medical experts to share and exchange technology and innovations.

Garcia also invited business leaders of the Saint Petersburg Chamber of Commerce, Russian-ASEAN Business leaders to the planned Cebu summit.

During the forum in St. Petersburg, Garcia said the attendance of the travel agencies as well as FAATA in the planned summit in Cebu is paramount, to realize Cebu's proposal to have direct flights from Russia to Cebu and vice versa, through a Russian or Filipino airline.

According to Sugbo News, the news portal of the Cebu Provincial Government, there is a 92 percent viability requirement to realize these direct flights.

In the same report, Lev Kosinov, the head of the Department of Transportation Regulation and International Cooperation of FAATA, was quoted as saying that travel agencies play an important role to make this possible.

The governor’s official business trip in Russia has also opened business opportunities for Cebu from investors of the said country.

She and the Capitol officials who were with her had a dialogue with Ivan Polyakov, Russia-ASEAN Business Council chairman, for possible investments of Russian businessmen in Cebu.

Polyakov expressed interest in investing in the Philippines through a partnership with financial institutions, so that Russian tourists and businessmen can have easy transactions when traveling abroad.

Aside from attending the SPIEF and meeting business leaders, Garcia and her Cebu delegation also had a tour inside St. Petersburg’s Napalkov Cancer Center, one of the largest research and treatment centers in Russia.

There, she and Dr. Vladimir Mikhailovich Moiseyenko, center director, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for future collaboration in developing “scientific, educational and innovative activities in the field of oncology.” — (FREEMAN)