Top Metro Cebu hotels eyed to serve as APEC venues
With the Cebu International Convention Center (CICC) in dismal condition, organizers of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) Summit in 2015 are looking at Metro Cebu’s high-end hotels as venue for its ministerial meetings.
The organizing committee’s deputy director general, Ambassador Ma. Angelina Sta. Catalina, said she was “pleased” with what Cebu has to offer.
“We are holding the activities in different hotels here. It depends on the hotels if they have the conference facilities. The number of delegations can range from 600 to 2,000 so it will depend on the capacity,” she told reporters.
Catalina and other regional officials of the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) met with Cebu Gov. Hilario Davide III to discuss their preparations with the province hosting four of the summit’s high-level meetings.
Catalina said Cebu will host four “major” meetings.
Prime mover
The first one will be on August 2015 for senior officials’ series of meeting and will last for three weeks.
The others will be three separate ministerial meetings attended by transportation heads, energy heads and finance heads on September and October.
“Cebu is the second largest city in the Philippines. It has become a hub of development in the country and the primary goal of Apec is to enhance economic integration between the regions and we see Cebu as one of the prime movers in the country,” Catalina said.
A secretariat from the national organizing committee will also be set up in Cebu to monitor the progress of the preparations.
Davide said he will form a committee composed of representatives from the cities of Cebu, Mandaue and Lapu-Lapu which will likely be the venues of the meetings.
Support
Davide said he will ask for other police personnel from neighboring provinces of Bohol and Negros to be deployed in Cebu to ensure the safety of the participants.
He said the province’s preparations will focus on the rehabilitation of roads where delegates will pass as well as beautification of the areas.
“They will need support from the LGUs for manpower, traffic. There’s a lot. We just need the full cooperation and support from everyone,” Davide said.
The Apec Summit consists of 13 meetings and conventions that will involve a gathering of 1,500 to 4,000 delegates from all over the region. The country last hosted the event in 1986.
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