The Joint Foreign Chambers

The European Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines (ECCP) in Cebu is organizing the first Joint Foreign Chambers (JFC) Networking Night in Cebu, scheduled for 12 August (Friday) at the Cebu City Marriott Hotel. I am glad that this event is happening, given the fact that we at the JFC see the value of Cebu and the Visayas as important partners to develop business in the Philippines. And most of the chambers involved in the JFC have companies located in Cebu.

The JFC is a coalition of the American, Australian-New Zealand, Canadian, European, Japanese, Korean chambers and PAMURI (Philippine Association of Multinational Companies Regional Headquarters, Inc.). We represent over 3,000 member companies engaged in over $230 billion worth of trade and some $30 billion worth of investments in the Philippines. The JFC supports and promotes open international trade, increased foreign investment, and improved conditions for business to benefit both the Philippines and the countries the JFC members represent.

The JFC has been cooperating within this coalition (without legal structure) for many years; we have worked with many administrations in the past and we look forward to a constructive win-win dialogue and consultation with the Duterte Administration. We participated in the SulongPilipinas Forum in Davao on 20/21 June and appreciated the interactive dialogue with Finance Secretary Dominguez and his team.

One of the well-recognized initiatives of the JFC is ‘Arangkada Philippines’.

Arangkada Philippines is the major advocacy—launched in 2010—of the Joint Foreign Chambers to increase investment and employment in the Philippines. These goals are elaborated in its main policy document Arangkada Philippines 2010: A Business Perspective.

The JFC conducts an annual assessment of the 471 Arangkada recommendations and organizes an annual Forum, where private and public sector delegates gather to launch the assessment and discuss its findings and reforms that improve to Philippine investment climate. The last assessment and annual Forum was done early this year.

The JFC advocates the Arangkada recommendations with the Philippine Government and leading Philippines business groups including ECOP, FINEX, MAP, MBC, PCCI, PhilExport and other trade and industry associations, through meetings with senior government officials and through its Arangkada website,  www.arangkadaphilippines.com.

In preparation of the 2016 Arangkada Forum, the JFC published the following Policy Papers after inclusive discussions with stakeholders from government and the private sector:

* Infrastructure

* Business Process Outsourcing (BPO)

* Creative Industries

* Tourism / medical travel / retirement

* Agriculture / Agribusiness

* Manufacturing

* Mining

* Broadband

These Policy Papers can be downloaded from the Arangkada website mentioned above. Another policy paper coming up soon will handle Airports (and tackle aviation issues).

I am happy to report that the first JFC networking night in Cebu is supported by the all 7 partners. The American Chamber, the Canadian Chamber, the Japanese Chamber have organizations in Cebu (ECCP just celebrated its 25th Anniversary in Cebu).

The networking event will have one topic that is basically on every businessman’s mind: Federalism – and what will it do the way we are doing business presently.

If you are interested to be part of this event, contact my colleague in Cebu, Ms. Rosemel Calderon at 253.3387 or 253.3389 or send her an email at [email protected]