25th Minbizcon opens today

CLOSE to 1,000 business executives, investors, industry players, policy makers, micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), and youth leaders from Mindanao and the Brunei-Indonesia-Malaysia-Philippines East Asian Growth Area (BIMP-Eaga) gather for the 25th Mindanao Business Conference (Minbizcon), which opens today at the Philippine Gateway Hotel in Surigao City.

The three-day Minbizcon will be concluded on August 26.

This year’s conference is centered on the theme: “Mindanao: Asean’s Emerging Economic Hub.”

On its 25th year, issues and concerns on “Mindanao’s capability to sustain inclusive economic growth,” will be tackled along with agricultural and tourism sector.

Other issues to take centerstage are those on slow internet and telecom connection, peace and security, climate change and power issues (high electricity rates and outages), tapping the renewable sources of energies in Mindanao.

President Rodrigo Duterte is invited as the Keynote Speaker of Minbizcon.

Surigao Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SCCI) president and conference director Concepcion Paqueo in a press statement said that they will endorse to the first Mindanaoan President the Mindanao Business Policy and Program Agenda, a blueprint drafted through a series of consultation with the stakeholders around Mindanao “containing the urgently needed business policies and actions targeted to spur inclusive socio-economic development in Mindanao.”

Paqueo added that the agenda will serve as the private sector’s counterpart to the government’s six-year Mindanao Development Plan.

At the sidelines of the conference, activities like business matching, trade fair and exhibit, Island Tours, Industrial Excursion in THPAL, Fellowship Nights and Chamber Presidents’ Breakfast meetings will be staged.

Last year, the Minbizcon was held in Dipolog City, Zamboanga del Norte. It carries the theme: “Winning the Asean, Gaining the Global Market.”