Business groups, regional agencies, and the cities of Mandaue, Cebu and Lapu-Lapu, under the lead of the Cebu provincial government, have stepped up preparations for the hosting of APEC meetings from August 22 to October 14 here.
Over 3,000 delegates from the 21 member economies of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) are expected to attend the Third Senior Officials’ Meetings (SOM3) and related sessions from August 22 to September 6 in Cebu.
Ministerial meetings on finance, structural reforms, transportation, and energy from September 7 to October 14 will have up to 700 participants.
The number excludes the staff as well as the spouses and children who will accompany the official delegates to the Cebu meetings, said Police Regional Office (PRO) 7 Director Prudencio Tom T. Bañas.
He said APEC delegates will start arriving here by August 20, or earlier.
They will go around Cebu and visit tourist spots in Central Visayas.
Olivia Luces, Office of Civil Defense (OCD) 7 regional director, said they have established 11 security command posts near the 5 venues.
Each command post will be manned by health, fire and security personnel.
The meetings will be held at Marco Polo Plaza, Cebu City Marriott Hotel, Waterfront Cebu City Hotel, Radisson Blu and Shangri-La’s Mactan Island Resort.
Cebu provincial tourism officer Mary Grade Paulino said the meeting venues and accommodation facilities are being inspected.
Luces also said during the AGIO forum yesterday that they were conducting training for the first responders, like the policemen, firemen, doctors, nurses and Coast Guard.
OCD 7 is updating its resources and coordinating with the Philippine National Police (PNP), Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP), Philippine Coast Guard (PCG), Department of Health (DOH) and other agencies in preparation for the event.
The APEC Cebu Organizing Committee is also tapping major universities for volunteers during the event.
Coordinator Ramil Abing said they started screening volunteers from the University of San Carlos (USC) and University of the Philippines (UP) Cebu last Tuesday.
Abing said they were finalizing the list of at least 300 volunteers.
Philippine hosting of APEC 2015 started in December last year and will culminate with the APEC Leaders’ Meeting in Manila this November 18-19.
Expected to attend the meetings in Cebu are the ministers and senior officials of Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, China, Hong Kong, China, Indonesia, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Peru, Philippines, Russia, Singapore, Taiwan, United States, and Vietnam./PIO Capitol, WITH UP Cebu Intern Mary Claire U. Catado