Envoy’s visit to strengthen Cebu-Singapore trade links

CEBU, Philippines - The recent visit of Singaporean Ambassador to the Philippines Kok Li Peng is seen to strengthen trade relations between Cebu and Singapore.

Kok met with the officers of the Cebu Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCCI) led by president Melanie Ng to express Singapore's intent to forge alliances for investment and opportunity exchanges with the Cebu business community.

The lady ambassador was in Cebu late last week to do preparatory meetings for the upcoming ASEAN Summit to be held in the Philippines next year.

Although the recent meeting with the Singaporean diplomat was exploratory, Ng said several areas of interests in both countries have been discussed such as Singaporean investors' interest in food, real estate, tourism, logistics, technology, and education, among others.

While Cebu, particularly CCCI has always been active in its business linkages with Singaporean business organizations, Ng said this time Cebu and Singapore will step up collaboration as the ASEAN integration is activating and is affecting the way businesses move in the region.

"With [transportation] connectivity to Singapore is increasing, we are the perfect partners," Ng said.

The chamber also invited Singaporean business players and leaders through the to next year’s Cebu Business Month (CBM 2017).

Ng said there is also a need to update Cebu or CCCI's linkage with Singapore as the environment and business dynamics are rapidly changing.

"That was just the start of our series of meetings with Singapore, to re-connect and strengthen our alliances," Ng added.

Potential moves for further cooperation in the backdrop of ASEAN Economic Community integration and other future initiatives were also being planned out and discussed during the meeting.

Last year, business leaders from Cebu presented several investment comeons in the province to the 12-men trade delegation from Singapore.

CCCI, Cebu Business Club, as well as leaders from the business sector like Roberto Aboitiz joined hands to showcase Cebu as an investment option for Singaporeans.

Last year's trade delegation from Singapore expressed interest in Cebu’s water supply technology, waste management, chemicals, rubber, some are also interested in sourcing products here for export to Singapore.

Cebu could also take advantage of the growing need of Singaporean firms, including the headquarters of multinational giants that are located in Singapore for their outsourcing requirements. (FREEMAN)