GENERAL SANTOS CITY - The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) is spearheading the 2nd Region 12 Investment Conference (R12Icon) in the region aimed at show casing at least 10 high-value products in SOCCSKSARGEN (South Cotabato, Cotabato, Sultan Kudarat, Sarangani, and General Santos City) Region. The three-day investment conference which started on Wednesday at the Family Country Home and Convention Center here is aimed at promoting the region as a trade and investment destination by matching large enterprises with the commodity and service producers in Region 12. It also aims to encourage potential investors to pour their capital in viable projects with guaranteed local market and international potential, and creating investment opportunities for micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs). DTI Region 12 Director Ibrahim Guiamadel said investment opportunities highlighted the potentials of moringa (malunggay), rubber, coffee, cassava, bamboo, milkfish, coconut, business process outsourcing, hotels and resorts, and creative industry in the three-day conference. Guiamadel said DTI 12 hopes to generate at least P500 million in new investments from the conference for the region. Guiamadel also cited the gains it had during the first investment conference held in July last year which resulted to at least P54 million investments in banana, P26.8 million in coffee, P7.7 million in medical transcription, P7 million in coco sugar, and P2.75 million in moringa. The DTI said Region 12 has a very robust agricultural sector, being a leading contributor in the production of rice, corn, pineapple, rubber, fishery, livestock, and poultry.
"We do not want to remain as producers only. We would like to process what we produce to add value to our products. So we are encouraging investors to come in and help us process our products, which is the bottom line of this investment conference and this is also an opportunity to generate employment for the region," Guiamadel said.
During the first plenary sessions, resource speakers were all involved in the processing the featured commodities. The speakers presented to the participants a package of investment opportunities and market potentials in their respective industries. Agencies involved in the R12Icon were the Department of Agriculture (DA), Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR), Department of Tourism (DoT), Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), Philippine Coconut Authority (PCA), and Commission on Information and Communications Technology (CICT)
