24 August 2013 - The Philippine Embassy in Kuala Lumpur received a delegation from the Davao Chamber of Commerce and the Association of Filipino Franchisers Inc. (AFFI), led by Environmental Counselors, Inc. Business Development Director for Visayas and Mindanao John Carlo Tria, on August 22. 

The delegation was in the last leg of their three-country “Benchmarking Human Resource Development & Trade Mission for Economic Integration,” where they also visited Indonesia and Singapore. 

During the call, Mr. Tria said that the group had a very successful Malaysian leg, where they met representatives from the Putrajaya Malay Chamber of Commerce, Universiti Putra Malaysia and the Tan Chong Group. 

Ambassador J. Eduardo Malaya stated that delegations like them are very much welcome to further Philippines-Malaysia economic relations, as well as in forwarding the ASEAN Economic Community 2015. 

“As the biggest and the most progressive city in the Brunei-Indonesia-Malaysia-Philippines-East Asian Growth Area (BIMP-EAGA), Davao can take a leadership role in the BIMP-EAGA and take positive steps towards its realization.  Davao can also take advantage of its hosting of some of the preparatory meetings to Philippine Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) hosting in 2015, in order to play up its profile and engaged the business sector towards the effort,” he said. 

The Davao mission to Kuala Lumpur reciprocated the earlier visit by the Putrajaya Malay Chamber of Commerce to Manila and Davao in January this year. 

The delegation was received positively by their Malaysian counterparts and there are prospects for workable partnerships and cooperation with Malaysian organizations and companies, as well as demands for goods and services which the Filipino companies could fill. 

The members of the AFFI particularly found many opportunities for their businesses to enter the Malaysian market, including those in the franchising business.  They added that they will call a meeting with the entire organization to share what they found out during the mission. 

Among the participating companies were NDC Tagum Foundation Inc., Environmental Counselors Inc., Carl E. Balita Group, Reyes Barbeque, Aqua Best, Lotsa Pizza, JMRT Freight and Fowarding Network, Sante Barley International, GMP Industrial, Greengold Gourmet Foods, Inc., and Vinxyl Air Travel.

The group departed Malaysia on August 23 for Manila, where they will share their findings and other learnings to their members.  END