Dr. Malou Monteverde, DCCCII president, told a regular Wednesday business and tourism forum at the Marco Polo Hotel that the airliners would offer budget trips from the Davao City hub to Asian destinations.
“It would be to the advantage of Davao travelers because the airliners could offer as low as $700 for a trip to the US,” she said.
The city is currently serving direct and interconnecting flights to Singapore and is one of three hubs of Cebu Pacific Air.
The three foreign airline companies signed up for the first Davao City Investment Conference from Aug. 19-21 here. Along with the foreign airliners were big companies interested in developing again the abaca industry that was once flourished in the city before the Second World War and drew Japanese migrant workers to the city, Monteverde said. Other agriculture ventures would also be engaged in plantation business growing other fruits and crops.
Some investors also said the DCCCII would explore the possibility of developing the old Sta. Ana wharf, just east of downtown, as an economic and investment zone. Previous prospectors have eyed transforming the old wharf into a commercial and entertainment area.
The August conference would be a different activity from the regular annual Davao Trade Exposition. The conference would come closely at the heels of a major international award accorded on the DCCCII. The chamber placed second behind a New Zealand city business chamber in the best business chamber during the recent World Chamber of Commerce Congress in Mexico City.
The DCCCII has also linked up with the city government to encourage the latter to come up with an ordinance that would encourage the city government to enter into public-private partnership and joint venture agreements with private groups.
Monteverde said business groups here believed that sending the city government to an aggressive posture to enter into joint ventures would fire up more business activities in the city and send signals to other investors to get involved into this kind of arrangement.
