Schwarzenegger to lead business delegation who’ll visit the country next year
Posted on December 26th, 2009
The Terminator will visit the Philippines next year, but he won’t be here to promote nor shoot any film. Instead, the California Governor will be leading a group of US business delegation who will visit the country in February as part of the government’s marketing efforts to expand the market of Philippine exports and industries.
The announcement was made by the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) who said that Schwarzenegger will be tagging along about 150 to 200 businessmen from San Francisco to discuss possible partnership deals with local industries. The main agenda of the delegation here would be green-energy technology.
The San Francisco delegation would be the first of a series of inbound business-matching sessions to be hosted by the Philippines next year for foreign trade and investment missions, according to DTI’s Bureau of Export Trade Promotion (BETP).
Aside from the Schwarzenegger-led delegates from San Francisco, visitors from Canada will also be flying in next year to discuss possible partnership with local firms. They would be looking on companies in the fields of education, medical tourism, import/export, banking and finance, and information technology (IT).
Likewise, delegates from Seattle and Silicon Valley would also come here for IT, Taiwan for diagnostic, Northern China for coco oil, and Portland for food products.
Meanwhile, local exporters would be brought by the government to about 20 countries next year too, for a similar pre-arranged business-matching sessions with foreign buyers.
The DTI said, “For 2010, BETP intends to conduct 23 Outbound Business Matchings (OBMs) to cover processed food, auto parts, fine jewelry, furniture houseware, wellness services, construction services, content for film and television, natural and organic products, and personal care products.”
Among the scheduled destination countries for Filipino exporters are Macau for processed food/marine products, India for snack food, Korea for marine products and natural and organic products, China for furniture, and Malaysia for Halal food.
Interested exporters who want to participate in these business-matching programs next year may contact BETP through (02)890-1200.
