Despite President Rodrigo Duterte’s earlier move to loosen the Philippines’ long-standing alliance with the United States while strengthening ties with China and Russia, Cebu’s biggest business organization continues to see vast opportunities for partnership with American entities.
Cebu Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCCI) President Melanie Ng said the group wants to explore all economic opportunities that will be of benefit to the local business community.
“We will continue collaborative talks with all markets and try to identify specific programs that would benefit our members,” added the chamber president, who leads an organization of close to 800 members based in Cebu.
Last week, CCCI officers met with US Commercial Service Senior Officer Diane Jones to discuss prospective projects, which they can collaborate on.
Ng said Jones’ office has a lot to offer to the chamber, especially in the areas of innovation, and science and technology, which have been the thrust of the local business organization over the last two years.
The chamber president said they are looking at partnering with American companies in the area of digital technology.
“The idea there is that they will bring here American companies that have digital products or services to share. We will create a venue where Cebu businessmen can meet, share ideas, and create a business out of these products and services,” Ng explained.
She added that they are also considering having the collaboration extend until the CCCI’s celebration of Cebu Business Month in 2018.
“We hope to be able to create opportunities toward a more robust economic relationship between the US and Cebu,” she said, adding that this was also pointed out by US Ambassador to the Philippines Sung Kim during his visit last week.
Kim was in Cebu City for the first time to grace the general membership meeting of the American Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines (Amcham) Cebu chapter, where he said “the US will continue to partner with the Philippines and look for ways to increase foreign investment, reduce trade barriers, and streamline business regulations.”
In recent reports, the Philippines was also looking into securing a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with the US in a move to take its bilateral relations with the world’s largest economy a notch higher.
Trade between the Philippines and US remains strong even with President Duterte’s pivot to other countries, a partnership that was further reinforced when the US government late in June approved the Philippines’ application to expand its current General System of Preference (GSP) coverage to include travel goods.
This was seen to expand the country’s economy by 0.5 percent and generate 70,000 new jobs.
According to the Office of the US Trade Representative, bilateral trade in goods between the US and Philippines totaled $18.2 billion in 2016.
The Philippines was the US’ 31st largest export market for goods last year while the US was the Philippines’ third major trading partner, the second biggest export market, and third top import supplier.
Meanwhile, Ng said around 30 delegates from the CCCI will also participate in the China-ASEAN Expo (CAEXPO) in the city of Nanning, Guanxi in China from September 12 to 16.
“There are a lot of opportunities we can do with China, both for import and export, especially since our governments have already agreed on economic ties. We want to make sure that we are able to capitalize on these initiatives and programs,” she said.
One of the priorities of the chamber, she pointed out, was to give members a chance to explore products and services in other markets.