By AJ de la Torre (The Freeman) Updated December 31, 2009 12:00 AM
“Compared to 2009, the economy would be better in 2010.”
This according to Cebu Chamber of Commerce and Industry president Sam Chioson who said that they are looking forward for the new year which has a lot in store after the gloomy 2008 and 2009.
Chioson said that with a lot of countries starting to see the change from depressing crisis, this would certainly have a good effect for the Philippines especially in Cebu that has numerous industries dealing with imports and exports abroad.
According to Chioson, the escalating economy would have the strongest effect on the export industry. However, this would not have an immediate recovery.
“It won’t be seen immediately,” he said who shared that they are already expecting a gradual recovery in 2010.
However, despite the slow change, Chioson said that they will still be fully pushing forward with their programs and advocacies.
“One of the things that we will be prioritizing is on the pursuance of the Cebu Economic Development Zone,” said Chioson.
CEDZ is a CCCI initiated proposal in partnership with the province of Cebu, which was already approved on the third and final reading by the House of Representatives early this year.
The proposal aims to proclaim the entire Cebu province as a Cebu Economic Development Zone through House Bill 5828, or the "Cebu Economic Development Zone Act of 2009" that aims to make Cebu a “self-sustaining, industrial, commercial and investment center that will put in place a wide-reaching employment and investment generation mechanism.”
Chioson said that the ratification of the bill in the senate is one of the things they are looking forward for this year, which would be of great help to Cebu once granted like the provision of a six-year income tax holiday for registered domestic enterprises and incentives like tax and duty-free importation of raw materials.
Aside from this, Chioson said that in line with their advocacy in the protection of the environment, they will be moving forward with their Participatory Urban Greening Project spearheaded by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources and the Cebu City Government.
Chioson said that with the need to mitigate the causes of global warming, they expect to be able to boost their activities in 2010 for urban greening.
Also, CCCI would be continuing their advocacies on helping their sector by hearing out respective concerns of industries as well as finding means to further help the development of the Micro Small and Medium enterprises.
This is part of the efforts of the chamber for the upcoming year as effect of the challenged faced in 2009, which has motivated them to gear forward for a better year ahead.
Chioson said that in the coming year, more of their call for immediate response of matters concerning the whole province would be heard like on the issue of energy insufficiency and high prices of fuel in Cebu compared to other provinces and regions.
CCCI was among the chambers in Cebu that filed a complaint with Governor Gwendolyn Garcia against the Big Three oil companies in the country for allegedly pricing higher the fuel in Cebu of almost P8.
The chamber also appealed for the immediate attention to be directed on the problem of lack of energy supply in Cebu, which has affected industries and households.
Chioson said that they would not be asking for a boycott on the three companies and they would not be doing so as a group. But he said that they would still be inviting small players to come in to Cebu and invest on more oil stations.
This is seen as a solution to bring down the oil prices in Cebu since the Big three has pointed out that prices in other parts of the country are more cheaper due to the number of competition they have around.
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