Davao City rolls out warm welcome to Davao ICon delegates
Davao City’s economic showroom to the world formally opened for the fifth year on Thursday.
The Davao Investment Conference (Davao ICon) rolled up its curtains at the SMX Convention Center providing both local and foreign businessmen a closer look into Davao’s booming economy.
In her welcome remarks, Dr. Maria Lourdes G. Monteverde, Chairperson, Davao Investment Conference 2019, said with a plethora of resources, business and trade opportunities in the region is never shorthanded.
“Since the first Davao Investment Conference in 2011, the Davao City Chamber, together with its private and public partners, has been unceasingly working to encourage a more vibrant business environment in the city,” Monteverde said.
This year’s theme is “Davao: Your Southeast Asian Investment Destination”.
Lemuel G. Ortonio, Davao City Investment and Promotion Center officer-in-charge said, “With a favorable business climate, convenient accessibility, vibrant economy, good governance initiatives and top-notch peace and order programs, Davao City is truly one’s best option to invest.”
“Davao City’s unprecedented economic growth has made the city position itself for bigger investments and possibilities [for you] to explore,” said Ortonio.
In terms of growth, the DCIPC head said the city has seen a steady [growth] anchored on programs initiated and supported by the local government. Such then, he said, are emulated across the country and done in collaboration with the private sector.
Ortonio shared the investment opportunities available in the four key sectors higlighted in this year’s Davao ICon — including agribusiness, tourism, property development, information and communications technology (ICT) and public-private partnership (PPP) projects.
Davao ranks 5th in the 2016 Most Competitive Highly Urbanized Cities survey of the National Competitiveness Council.
In 2018, Davao City saw an increase in tourist arrivals — 2.39 million to be exact, surpassing the previous year by as much as 18%.
This year’s Davao Icon includes a business conference, business matching, and trade exhibition. Topics to be discussed during the two-day conference includes an in-depth look into the Davao Region investment opportunities, special economic zones, Davao Real Estate trends and forecasts and the sea and air connectivity. On the second day (21 June 2019), foreign speakers are expected to grace the podium and discuss the many potentials they see when investing in Davao City and Mindanao.
Alibaba Cloud International, Chinese cloud computing company, will be taking centerstage on the second day of the conference.
President Rodrigo Duterte will be addressing the delegates on Friday with Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez doing the honors of introducing the chief executive.
Davao ICon 2019 is supported by the European Chamber of Commerce in the Philippines, Inc., American Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines, Inc., Japanese Chamber of Commerce in Mindanao, and the Canadian Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines, Inc., city government of Davao, Mindanao Development Authority, Davao City Investment Promotion Center, Department of Trade and Industry-Davao and Department of Tourism-Davao.
