EU ambassadors make surprise attendance in Davao investment conference

June 20, 2019

DAVAO CITY - Organizers of the Fifth Davao Investment Conference said they were surprised with the appearance of the ambassadors of European countries when it opened here Thursday.

"Apparently, individual European countries are looking at the business and investment opportunities of Davao more than what the EU parliament was looking at," said Arturo Milan, president of the Davao City Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

He said the ambassadors were invited in the past but none attended. "This time they were also invited but we were surprised and excited they were here," added Milan.

“To be specific about it, it’s the EU Parliament (that is critical of the human rights record of the Philippines) but the European countries are taking individual stance,” he said.

Milan said the Netherlands has been a traditional trading partner, especially for Davao's cacao products.

Those who came were Ambassadors Franz Jessen (European Union), Jozsef Bencze (Hungary), Saskia de Lang (Netherlands), Harald Fries (Sweden), Charges de Affaires, a.i. Mihai Sion (Romania) and  Special Envoy to the EU Mr Avelino Cruz..

Organizers said there were also more than 200 foreign businessmen and women.

Former DCCCII president and organizer, Ma. Lourdes Monteverde, said the appearance of the ambassadors comes when there has been a discernible shifting of the centers and focus of world trade.

“There is the Brexit (British exit) in the European Union, the US-China trade war, and many are looking at Asia,” she said.

Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte said confirmed the interest of the ambassadors to determine, or help convey the investment opportunities.

“Some of them wanted to explore on helping conservation efforts, like what happened to our two Philipine eagles which are now in Singapore, to ensure that when there are incidents like a bird flu, we would still have our reserve.”

“Probably they want to get a feel of the investment climate here before they would present the opportunities to their business groups. Or if they want to come back here, like in the case of Russia, which would be coming back after this Icon,” she added.

“This Icon (investment conference) is also seeing a game-changing event on how the next generation of Icons should be conducted,” Monteverde said, as she said that, “on this Icon, we have the head of the world’s largest cloud-technology company that has been instrumental in transforming urban centers into smart cities”.

She was referring to the attendance of the top-ranking executives of Alibaba Cloud International from Mexico. “They would present to the session what they did in transforming some cities in Malaysia and China into smart cities,” she said.

“This conference would be the new face of global e-commerce while conferences like this one would be held,” she said.

“It’s a game-changing ICon,” she said.