TOURISM Secretary Christina Garcia Frasco has announced that Cebu will host the 36th joint meeting of the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) Commission for East Asia and the Pacific, and South Asia next year in an effort to reintroduce the Philippines to the world.

This, after the Philippines, represented by Secretary Frasco, was elected as Vice President of the 25th General Assembly of the UNWTO as well as Chair of the UNWTO Commission for East Asia and the Pacific last June 16.

Frasco made the announcement during the Post-SONA Philippine Economic Briefing (PEB) Cebu, where the Tourism chief served as one of the panelists of the session titled “Reinvigorate. Accelerate. Transform”

alongside fellow Cabinet Secretaries Alfredo Pascual of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) and Bienvenido Laguesma of the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE), as well as Undersecretary Marlo Iringan of the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG), and Assistant Secretary Genevieve Velicaria-Guevarra of the Department of Agriculture (DA).

In her statement, Frasco said “we anticipate that with the policies supporting tourism under the Marcos administration, the convergences that we have had under our President’s whole-of-nation approach towards tourism development, and most importantly, our private sector’s partnership, collaboration, continued investment, and belief in the strength of the tourism industry, will allow us to adopt and occupy a more primary position in Asia and recover sooner than what is predicted.”

She stressed Cebu, Central Visayas and the rest of the Philippines will exceed all expectations because there’s just so many reasons to love the Philippines.

Charles Kenneth Co, President of Cebu Chamber of Commerce and Industry, also joined and represented the private sector in the panel moderated by Department of Budget and Management (DBM) Undersecretary Margaux Marie Salcedo.

Also present at the forum were Department of Finance (DOF) Secretary Benjamin Diokno, Department of Budget and Management (DBM) Secretary Amenah Pangandaman, National Economic Development Authority (NEDA) Undersecretary Joseph Capuno, and Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) Deputy Governor Francisco Dakila, Jr., Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry Central Visayas Regional Governor Melanie Ng, who composed the panel discussion on “A Fast-Growing and Forward-Looking Economy.”

Meanwhile, the second Post-SONA PEB Cebu discussion invited Secretaries Manuel Bonoan of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), Jaime Bautista of the Department of Transportation (DOTr), Ivan John Uy of the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT), Raphael Lotilla of the Department of Energy (DoE), together with Public-Private Partnership (PPP) Center Executive Director Cynthia Hernandez to talk about the Build Better More program of the Marcos administration.

AUTHOR PROFILE

Cristina Lee-Pisco