LAGAWE, Ifugao – The Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI) Ifugao Chapter is now conducting a mass recruitment of members in the eleven municipalities in order to strengthen the bond among local businessmen to be able to access appropriate technical and financial assistance as well as establish appropriate linkages with large-scale companies outside the province.
Jonathan Cuyahon, PCCI-Ifugao Chapter, said the group is targeting to increase its initial 43 members to at least 80 and at the most 100 by the end of the year.
“We want to extend whatever assistance we could give to the owners of micro-businesses so that they will be able to appropriately market their products and make Ifugao known in the international business scene,” Cuyahon stressed.
He disclosed the PCCI-Ifugao chapter will be maintaining a booth during the celebration of the province’s founding anniversary so that the province’s business sector will be encouraged to be members of the prestigious organization and be counted in the bid for a robust business sector in the province.
According to him, members of the organization will be given a chance to have direct access to technical and financial assistance from concerned government agencies and that they will also be given a chance to be linked up with numerous business groups outside the province for them to be abler to supply the requirements of the identified businesses.
The PCCI-Ifugao Chapter was revived through the initiative of Engr. Alfonso T. Lao, assistant vice president for Northern Luzon of PCCI, and Cuyahon as well as Godfrey Dominong of the Ifugao Global Entrepreneurs Multipurpose Cooperative (IGEMCO).
He said local micro-businesses cannot rely on the existing market to sustain their operations, thus, they must be appropriately linked with already established businesses in the regional, national and international scenes for them to be able to expand their operations and move up to greater heights.
The PCCI –Ifugao Chapt6er official underscored while the province is an ecotourism destination, local businesses have to venture on other forms of sustaining and expanding their operations by establishing appropriate linkages in order to have a long-term market for their products which are also considered quality products.
Cuyahon said the organization will also serve as an instrument to attract the influx of more investments to be infused by interested businessmen in various potential businesses that would be established in the different parts of the province in the future.
Aside from tourist-oriented businesses, Cuyahon cited other potential business prospects in the province include agriculture-based industries among others that will help perk up the desired local economic growth.
It can be recalled that no less than PCCI national officials predicted that potential investments in Northern Luzon are tourism-oriented and agriculture-based industries because of the remaining wide track of lands that could be utilized for the purpose while maintaining the state of agriculture and the environment for the benefit of the present and future generations of Filipinos.
By Dexter A. See
