Forum to tackle ways on greening Cebu tourism

CEBU, Philippines - The German Technical Cooperation (GTZ) with its Promotion of Green Economic Development (ProGED) project is moving on its support for the fast growing health and wellness and tourism sectors in Cebu with the holding of the "Upgrading and Greening of the Health and Wellness Tourism Value Chain of Cebu" forum.

The two-day seminar workshop scheduled on September 26 - 27, 2013 is seen to reinforce the two sectors' potential to compete with the global market.

Already, the groups laboriously arrived in the strategic objective of offering light medical, dental and wellness tour packages, primarily to the Filipinos overseas, through product and market development. With this core guiding principle, the Cebu Health and Wellness Council was formed to implement action plans and motivate the stakeholders in upping their involvement with this project.

The health and wellness value chain began to take shape in 2008 using the value links methodology, a systematic and systemic approach to enhancing the competitiveness of value chains and fostering pro-poor growth. It was introduced by then, the German Technical Cooperation (GTZ), now GIZ.

The objectives of the two-day planning workshop are to validate upgrading strategies and activities of the health and wellness tourism value chain of Cebu. Next is to present the environmental hotspots and proposed work packages to address them and finally, to prepare the "greening" action plan of the health and wellness tourism value chain.

Most of the participants in the planning workshops committed to join in the discussion of different key functional groups namely transportation group, tour operators, restaurants, SPA and massage centres, clinic operators, etc. The companies who will share their greening practices are BE, Plantation Bay, Nature's Legacy, and Perpetual Succour Hospital.

The event is also in coordination with the partner agencies and organizations like the Department of Tourism (DOT) and the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), collaborating with other national government agencies, Cebu Provincial LGU and Cebu Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCCI).

Local government units (LGUs) executives, as well as business enterprises in the tourism and wellness sectors, are expected to participate in the workshop.

The first day of the event will focus on the role and importance of LGUs in providing an enabling environment for tourism businesses to grow as stipulated in the 1991 Local Government Code of the Philippines and the Tourism Act of 2009.

The leading tourism destination in the country Puerto Princesa City will share how the LGU aligned its resources to achieve its vision, among other success factors, that led to the success of Palawan as a major sustainable tourist destination.  

The second day of the activity is focused on enhancing competitiveness of businesses by adopting environment friendly and climate smart strategies.  Providers of green services, green technologies and green financing will share how the enterprises, especially micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) can implement the changes necessary to go green. 

Business membership organizations (BMOs) can dialogue with businesses to identify partnerships for them to become more relevant to enterprises in the tourism sector.

During the two-day event, there will be an exhibit of green services, green technologies and green products, including organically and naturally grown fruits and vegetables.  The exhibit aims to showcase that Cebu has already many initiatives towards green economic development.

GIZ ProGed project manager Volker Steigerwald in an interview said that aside from creating the avenue for stakeholders in health, wellness and tourism to implement greening policies in their respective operations, through technical support and know-how, GIZ will also link these companies to the ample institutions that provide financing access to green related projects.     

He said the identified beneficiaries of the three-year project will be matched with different financial institutions that are offering assistance for companies implementing green operations. 

In Cebu, the project which got an allocation of three million Euro from Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), identified the health and wellness sector as the primary beneficiary, while Bohol for its eco-tourism.

In spite of the threat of climate change and environmental stress ProGED looks at green economic development as a driver for competitiveness, innovation, new markets and jobs which will contribute to inclusive growth and poverty reduction.

"We use this opportunity that economy is doing very well in the Philippines as a step to improve competitiveness among MSMEs. The Philippines being seen to be the next economic tiger in Asia in five years, can learn from Germany [in terms of adopting green economic development]," said Steigerwald.

The activity is organized in partnership with the ProGED--a development cooperation project jointly implemented by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit  GIZ and the Department of Trade and Industry.

The ProGED is funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development BMZ with the aim of increasing the competitiveness of MSMEs by adopting environment friendly and climate smart strategies.

As a federally owned enterprise, GIZ supports the German Government in achieving its objectives in the field of international cooperation for sustainable development. /JMD (FREEMAN)