Rachelle M. Nessia
CEBU CITY, May 14 (PIA) -- With barely three months to go before
Cebu hosts a series of APEC 2015 ministerial meetings, the national organizing
committee (NOC) pegs Cebu to be 80% ready in its preparations.
“You already have it (facilities) here. In other places, they have
to construct but here, everything is already in place,” said Philippine
Ambassador Marciano A. Paynor, Jr., APEC 2015 NOC Director General during a
press conference with Cebu media.
Paynor, along with some NOC members, met today with the local
organizing committee at the Governor’s Office to discuss the local preparations
and what needs to be done by the local government units where the meetings will
take place.
From August 24 to September 11, Cebu will play host to a series of
important ministerial meetings that will be held at Radisson Blu Hotel and
Marco Polo Plaza in Cebu City and Shangri-La’s Mactan Resort and Spa in
LapuLapu City.
More than 3,000 international delegates are expected to be coming
in and out of Cebu for the duration of the meetings.
According to Paynor, one of the challenges that the local
organizing committee needs to address is traffic since there might be as many
as eight to ten meetings that will take place simultaneously in one day.
“Delegations will attend these meetings from one venue to another.
How do we ensure that the flow of traffic, especially during peak periods, be
maintained so that they can go from one venue to another? This is one major
challenge in Cebu,” he pointed out.
The NOC chief is confident though that Cebu’s hosting of said
meetings will be successful as he recalled the “excellent” arrangements during
the 12th ASEAN Leaders’ Summit in 2007, which opened in Cebu.
“You have already experienced hosting multilateral meeting with 16
heads of government and it was seamless and flawless. All those heads of
government who came here expressed their satisfaction. I don’t see why we
cannot do it now,” Paynor told Cebu reporters after his meeting with the local
organizing committee members at the Capitol.
Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) is a multilateral
international organization that seeks to foster free trade and economic
prosperity among its member-economies in the Asia-Pacific region.
APEC is composed of 21 member-economies, namely: Australia,
Brunei, Canada, Chile, People’s Republic of China, Chinese Taipei, Hong Kong,
Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Peru, the Philippines,
Russia, Singapore, Thailand, the United States of America, and Vietnam.
(rmn/PIA-7 Cebu)
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