On being ‘future ready’ and forging partnerships
Glenn Soco, Mandaue Chamber of Commerce and Industry president, shares the chamber’s thrusts and events for this year’s Mandaue Business Month this August.
CDN PHOTO/TONEE DESPOJO
Mandaue Chamber to help bizmen cope with changes, to explore more foreign tie-ups
Local businessmen especially members of the Mandaue Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MCCI) are encouraged to learn to be “future ready.”
This is one of the thrusts of the MCCI led by its president Glen Soco — to help local businessmen achieve this through the activities lined up for this year’s Mandaue Business Month (MBM), which has the theme of being “future ready.”
Soco also led Tuesday’s launching of the MBM 2017, which also plans to strengthen Mandaue businesses and the city’s partnership to other government units and private industry organization.
Soco said that Mandaue City, and the whole country in fact, is facing a lot of changes — politics, environment, policies, natural and man-made disasters among others.
“We are ready. But we need to be future ready. To be future ready means pushing businesses to be equipped with the knowledge on how to cope with these changes, on how to survive,” Soco said.
Disaster preparedness
To guide business owners and workers to get through the negative impacts of these changes, the MCCI is hosting a business summit and a disaster preparedness seminar.
The disaster preparedness seminar, set on August 15 and 16, will focus on how business establishments can effectively react and resolve natural disasters and terror threats.
He cited the terrorist attacks in Marawi City and Bohol as examples of these threats and how the chamber was working closely with the city and provincial government to help guard Cebu’s industry against these kind of threats.
“We have not seen a direct impact from what happened in Marawi and Bohol. Maybe the tourism industry was quite affected, but we didn’t feel it in the business side. But we need to help because it is also our concern,” Soco said in Cebuano.
The MCCI Business Summit on August 24, meanwhile, will highlight the legal positioning of businesses as the country is apparently traversing on a different path with President Rodrigo Duterte’s leadership.
Supreme Court Chief Justice Ma. Lourdes Sereno and Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) Secretary Mark Villar are among the five speakers invited for the business summit.
“We are facing a lot of risks especially because we have a new administration. There are risks like the new policies, tax reforms and labor laws. We need to be updated on these legal matters,” Soco said in Cebuano.
He added that businesses could only better strategize and be ready if they could acknowledge and could understand the risks they would be facing.
Global partnerships
Aside from assessing and preparing for the threats against businesses and the economy, MCCI is also pushing for more foreign partnerships.
In fact, MCCI is set to sign a sister-chamber relations with the city of Ayabe in Kyoto prefecture, Japan.
The agreement, Soco said, will give the MCCI opportunities to open businesses in Ayabe.
“This partnership means we can build businesses in the Japanese city, and they can also be our partners in our business ventures here in Mandaue,” Soco said.
He added that Ayabe City, which is known for its textile and food processing industries, is also foreseen to welcome Filipino workers after the signing of the agreement.
Aside from Ayabe, Soco said MCCI is also exploring tie-ups with the chambers of China, Australia and New Zealand.
Other MBM events
Steven Yu, Mandaue Business Month’s chairman, said MCCI has plotted several events for the monthlong event aside from the business summit and disaster preparedness seminar.
These include the Trees Brew Life, Investment Forum, Digital Marketing Seminar for SMEs and the Halad Sa Mandauehanon.
Mandaue Chamber Night and Mandaue Chamber Awards will be the celebration’s culminating activity on August 31.
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