Ormoc City hosts 25th Visayas Area Business Conference

ORMOC CITY, Leyte, Sept. 16 (PNA) – This city hosted the two-day 25th Visayas Area Business Conference (VBAC), raising local government’s optimism that the event will spur local economic development.

It is the first time the conference was held in this city and the second hosting in Eastern Visayas, after the Leyte Chamber of Commerce and Industry hosted it in Tacloban City in the 1990s.

Ormoc City Mayor Richard Gomez supported the Ormoc Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Inc. in this event that opened on Thursday.

“This event is good for the city. It will boost the interest of business locators to do business here in the city and improve the arrival of tourists,” Gomez said.

Gomez said the city extended financial assistance of PHP500,000 for the activity aside from letting the organizers use the city facilities like the Astrodome and the public plaza for the agricultural fair.

The Technology Transfer Day of the Department of Science and Technology was held starting Wednesday at the Astrodome.

The mayor expressed his confidence that more businesses will come in after the business conference which, attracted 500 participants from three Visayas regions.

He told reporters that the SM Retail Inc. will have its groundbreaking on Sept. 24. Other business giants are coming like the Ayala in partnership with Metro Gaisano, Robinsons Mall, Max’s Group of Companies, among others.

Asked if his star power has something to do with businesses flocking to the city, he said it helped.

Long before he became the mayor, Gomez said that he and his wife, Leyte 4th dist. Rep. Lucy Torres Gomez had initial talks with the Ayala officials and they just waited until he became the mayor.

He opined that his administration is easy to deal with as long as it is a legal business and he admonished his employees not to accept bribes from these companies.

The Ayala Group of Companies is interested in the public market area while the SM Savemore-Ormoc will be at the City Autobus Compound.

The two-day VABC worked on the theme “Change is Here,” that included topics for the plenary sessions “One Visayas: Everything Under the Sun”; Empowering Businesses through Science and Technology; Visayan Power (Bizdak Power); Agriculture; Transformative land and Coastal Resource Management mong other with powerful speakers. (PNA)

FPV/SQM/VICKY C. ARNAIZ/EGR