CCCI Strengthens Position for ASEAN Economic Integration 2015

Cebu Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Inc. is now ready to kick off this June its annual month-long jubilee, the Cebu Business Month 2014 with the theme “ASEAN 2015 and Beyond” following its Media Launching on May 9, 2014 at Marco Polo Plaza.

With this year’s theme “ASEAN 2015 and Beyond,” CCCI aims to gear Cebu towards strengthening its position in order to take advantage of the opportunities to be opened by the ASEAN Economic Integration in 2015.

This economic integration “aims to create a single market economy with free movement of goods, services and investments throughout the 10-member nations of ASEAN. It would be the culmination of the regional grouping’s economic efforts since the 1990s.”

In lieu with this, CCCI are calling on business owners to get ready to be big and bold. Fostered by this year’s theme, they are lining up a series of activities that will continue to spur Cebu’s business growth towards global competitiveness.

These activities are:

Business-in-Gold Tournament
Cebu ICT and BPM Conference and Expo
Cebu in the Bag Launching
Cebu Run for the Rivers
Creative Industries Cebu
Entrepreneurship Seminars
Grand Chamber Awards and Fellowship Night
Happy Jobs Fair
Mega Jobs Fair
Regional Franchise Expo and Seminars
Start-up Weekend
Tourism and Investment Promotion

Though CCCI sees the ASEAN Integration an opportunity for Cebu to grow economically, some issues were raised by the media during the Press Q and A portion of CBM Launching. One question was addressed to the Enterpreneurship Chair, Mr. Apolinario G. Suarez, Jr. that concerns the small business entrepreneurs in Cebu—those that sell goods in very small quantities like the Sari-Sari stores and street vendors. How could these entrepreneurs compete and cope with the economic integration when they just have small capital? Since our country will be in a highly competitive global market soon, these small local entrepreneurs were anticipated to be highly affected.

CCCI has an ongoing program with the local entrepreneurs in Carbon Market that organizes training programs and in fact had a focus group discussion in Bantayan Island about fishing and poultry.

Suarez also said that small businesses of local entrepreneurs is an “interesting thing to study” further.

Activities

For the upcoming Business Month, there will be several seminars for businessmen to upgrade their own local businesses.

For the Cebuanos, Mynimo Happy Jobs Fair is for them. This will be on May 31, 2014 at 10 am at SM City Cebu Trade Hall. Hosted by Mynimo.com, the official job website of the Cebu Business Month 2014, this event will feature Cebu’s happy companies that have local and overseas job vacancies. This is to help connect jobseekers with employers in one convenient time.

There will also be a Start-Up Weekend on June 6-8 at 6:30 pm to 10 pm at University of Cebu Banilad. This is for the developers, designers, marketers, product managers, entrepreneurs and start-up enthusiasts to come and share ideas, form teams, build products and launch start-ups.

For the Visayan music lovers and enthusiasts, there will be the Visayan Pop-Song Writing Competition-Finals Night on June 24, 2014 at 8 to 10 pm at SM City Cebu Cinema. This is where innovative forms and styles in musical competitions set trends in the Filipino music scene in a contest.

Entrepreneurship seminars will also be held on June 10, 17 and 24. These seminars will talk about Building a National Brand and Going Nationwide, Competing in the Global Space, and the Basics in Successful Exporting.

More events are waiting for this year’s Cebu Business Month in a bigger and bolder way. For more information, you may visit www.cebubusinessmonth.net or like CBM 2014 on Facebook, www.facebook.com/CebuBusinessMonth and follow on Twitter, @CebuBizMonth.