To promote CALABARZON and investments and exports in the region, the Department of Trade and Industry Region 4-A will host the CALABARZON Investment Forum and B2B Meetings with the Canada Inbound Mission Delegates on February 17, 2018 in Lucena City.
The forum is part of the program of activities of the Philippine Chamber of Commerce-Toronto (PCCT) Inbound Trade and Investment Mission to the Philippines, which is an offshoot of the Outbound Trade and Business Mission in Canada organized by the DTI 4-A, in cooperation with the Department of Science and Technology CALABARZON, Philippine Coconut Research and Development Foundation Incorporated, and the local government of Alabat through the support of the DTI-Foreign Trade Services Corps Toronto last November 2017.
Among the investment opportunities presented in the said mission was the Philippine makapuno industry and agribusiness investment promotion in the Alabat island. PCCT has expressed serious interest in the program. Thus, they will be visiting the Philippines on February 10-17, 2018 together with other Canadian-based companies such as iAdverTUBE, Canada Business Connections, Blueprint Canada, Accubooks, Montephil, Inc., Boulevard, G&C Logistics, and the Federation of Filipino Canadian Associations of Quebec to pursue and finalize talks about the joint venture project and explore other business and investment opportunities.
The forum aims to encourage more investments and exports in CALABARZON and to promote local products and services to the North American market, especially in the food and non-food sector, business process outsourcing, custom brokerage, education, construction, and real estate business. The program will include discussions on turning Overseas Filipinos (OFs) to Overseas Filipino Investors (OFIs), technologies on makapuno processing, support program for the Alabat Island Economy, and the signing of the memorandum of agreement.
“We, in DTI, want to improve the economic conditions at the grassroot level targeting farmers and MSM enterprises, increase export of coconut products like makapuno not only to Canada but also to other parts of the world, promote organic production of an indigenous food product, and develop as part of a bigger industry development program,” said DTI CALABARZON Director Marilou Q. Toledo.
Toledo added that they also want to promote Philippine brands in consonance with the 7Ms (mindset change, mastery, mentoring, money, machine, market access, and models of business) of entrepreneurship being advocated by DTI.
The expected attendees will be from the national government agencies, local government units, Chambers of Commerce, micro, small, and medium enterprises, and the CEOs/Managers of Canadian-based companies.♦