CCCI to strengthen trade ties with China and Japan

CEBU, Philippines — The Cebu Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCCI) will be putting its focus on reinforcing trade linkages with China and Japan next year, in preparation for the anticipated influx of investors from these two powerful economies.

CCCI president Melanie Ng said that although the chamber will continually forge alliances with different business organizations with different countries such as Europe and Asia, Japan and China will take the center stage in trade relations.

To align with President Rodrigo Duterte's thrust in making strong connections with Japan and China, Ng said business interest has noticeably improved in the last few months, and this is expected to increase further in 2018.

In fact, CCCI is already preparing to participate in next year's biggest trade event in Shanghai, China called China International Import Exposition, an event which is regarded as the largest event happening in China in recent years.

Slated to happen on November 5-10, 2018, Ng said CCCI is working on this trade event in China, so Cebu can be well represented in this historical exposition seen to boost trade linkages between businesses all over the world.

Ng, whose CCCI presidency will end early 2018 said, she volunteered to chair this exposition event.

More trade missions will also be arranged by next year, to bring Cebuano business leaders and decision makers to Japan by 2018.

According to Ng, CCCI would like to tighten its partnership initially with Himegi Chamber in a bid to learn from their good practices in incubation and SME development.

Cebu would then like to get inputs from Himegi Chamber how to effectively promote business incubation system, as well as get their best practices in developing their homegrown industries or the SMEs.

Himeji is a city in the Kansai region of Japan. Ng said the business sector in this city is organized, and that it is implementing sound programs for the development of SMEs, and also has good system for incubation.

Himeji Chamber, she added also has strong partnership with its local ministry of trade and commerce, and this is what CCCI is going to emulate.

Likewise, CCCI will also proceed on re-establishing its linkage with Hiroshima, following up its last visit held last year.

CCCI promoted Cebu's investment opportunities to investors and businessmen in Hiroshima City, Japan, due to an invitation from the Hiroshima Philippines Friendship Society (HPFS) to the Philippine Business Seminar in this Japanese City.

Next year, CCCI is also planning to mount another trade mission to Hiroshima, Ng said.

Early this year, business delegation from Yokohama City was in Cebu to explore business opportunities. But there are still a lot of business groups in Japan that have expressed or set to visit Cebu in the next few months.

Last August, CCCI hosted a six-man delegation from Japan to explore Cebu's potential for investments. (FREEMAN)