City Hall, Oro Chamber sponsor biz expo

A showcase of the best products that Cagayan de Oro City’s small to medium enterprises (SMEs) can offer will be on display in a five-day expo sponsored by City Hall and the city’s business community in Mandaluyong City next week.

Oro Trade Investments Promotions Center (TIPC) chief John Asuncion confirmed during a press briefing Wednesday afternoon that the Oro Best Expo 2023 scheduled in Shangri-La Plaza Mall will serve as a venue to introduce the city’s SME products to both international and domestic investors.

“While going international is the wish of every SME, the national market alone in Manila is quite large,” he said in Visayan.

Asuncion along with City Administrator Roy Hilario Raagas, President Ray Talimio, and Director Reuben Vegafria of the Cagayan de Oro Chamber of Commerce and Industry Foundation Inc. (Oro Chamber) to promote the five-day Oro Best Expo to be held on Oct. 4 to 8 at Shangri-la Plaza mall and the Cagayan de Oro Investment Forum scheduled on Oct. 5 at the Edsa Shangri-la hotel also in Mandaluyong City.

“The SMEs to be brought there aside from those supported by City Hall have the potential to enter (both the national and) international export market…already two of our local SMEs have penetrated both Amazon and E-Bay so there’s a big potential not only to promote them but also to attract investors (to the city),” Talimio said.

Asuncion said the opportunities for investment and growth in Cagayan de Oro City and neighboring areas remain open to both domestic and foreign investors alike.

“We had a similar forum in Intercontinental Manila 14 years ago….we need more investors to come and we want to show them that we’ve laid the grounds, the platform is there, the incentives are there and the city is poised to (take flight),” Vegafria said.

Both Vegafria and Talimio were thankful to Mayor Rolando Uy’s support for the five-day expo and investment forum.

“After City Hall’s full support in last year’s Mindanao Food Congress, we thought we should level up…we’re happy that Mayor Klarex extended his administration’s support without hesitation and we invite more of our SMEs to join the expo,” Talimio said.

For his part, Raagas said both the commerce sections of the various foreign embassies stationed in the country along with the business chambers in Manila were invited to the expo and investment forum.

“They can see for themselves what Cagayan de Oro (can offer) in terms of investment opportunities,” he said. (Stephen Capillas of City Information Office)