Tulfo: “Cebu, You’re Simply the Best!”

CEBU CITY— “Cebu, you’re simply the best!” This is how Senator Raffy Tulfo described Cebu with the Cebu Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCCI) steering the business sector here to propel Cebu’s excellent economic growth and development.

In his keynote message on May 31 during the 2024 General Membership Meeting (GMM)/Turnover Ceremony and induction of Officers, Trustees and New members of the Chamber, Senator Tulfo commended the CCCI as the most outstanding chamber awarded by the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI) and other award giving bodies that put CCCI in the Philippines Hall of Fame for most outstanding chamber.

“Even without these awards, the existence of CCCI in the Cebu community for over a century is enough to show its vital role in bringing Cebu to where it is now.  I especially admire CCCI for its award as the top five best education and training projects from the World Chambers Federation, because I'm a believer of continuous training and education for our people,” Tulfo said.

Tulfo believes that CCCI is able to do outstanding service because they are CCCI and what does CCCI mean for him? It means, Collaborative, Competitive, Compassionate and Innovative. 

He said, the Chamber has been very effective because it came together as a community to collaborate and see how everyone is putting together that could ensure a robust business environment here in Cebu and to maintain good external relations to enable an ecosystem for economic growth and development.

“This includes a good working relationship with government agencies, makes the lines open with crucial government agencies and local government units that can address concerns and with proper coordination, CCCI can move forward the government aid and assistance poured more particularly for the micro small and medium enterprises (MSMEs),” Tulfo added.

Tulfo shared that there have been 615 Shared Service Facility (SSF) projects across the Visayas worth P500 million. According to the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), with this initiative, it has supported 61,000 MSMEs and 25,000 of the users are creating over 16,500 jobs and through this interface, more than P2.7B measures have been released to some 14,747 MSMEs in the country, including the Visayas regions.

On CCCI as being Competitive, Tulfo said the mission of CCCI is to strengthen the capabilities of the members who have focused linkages and synergy for the competitiveness of civil and HR people in the global economy.  This competitiveness is necessary for the country’s economy and businesses to move forward.

“If we limit ourselves to what we know and power in our current situation, we will be behind, we have to continuously update or distances and skills of our people to what's going on in the global economy, and Cebu with CCCI have done well, tremendously nurturing various flourishing economic sectors in Cebu,” Tulfo said.

The IT-BPM industry generates a record of $32.5 billion in revenue in 2022 employing over 121,000 people. This growth in the IT sector has a domino effect in the real property industry because of the surge in demand for residential condominiums within affordable mid-range price brackets, according to Tulfo.

Plus, there are several significant infrastructure projects such as the Mactan Cebu International Airport (MCIA) and the Cebu-Cordova Link Expressway (CCLEX) which have been crucial to boost development in the tourism industry that attracted over two million visitors in 2023. “Definitely very upstanding!” Tulfo added.

Tulfo also underscored the compassionate and innovative approaches of CCCI in the importance of financial literacy and education for families and MSMEs that strengthen capabilities of members through focused linkages and synergy for competitiveness in the global economy and continuously updating skills and knowledge of people to keep up with global economic changes.

 Finally, Senator Tulfo highlighted the efforts, policies and programs of the CCCI in the IT, tourism and the MSMEs by implementing enterprise-based education and training framework act to focus on skills development and enhancing financial literacy programs to educate families on handling finances thus, encouraging more of them to stay in the Philippines. (Photos: MBCNewman)