THE DAVAO City Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Inc. (DCCCII) announced on Wednesday that officials of the Alibaba Group, the Chinese technology conglomerate founded by Jack Ma, have confirmed participation at the 5th Davao Investment Conference 2019 (Davao ICON) on June 20 to 21. DCCCII Trustee Maria Lourdes G. Monteverde, who chairs the ICON 2019, said the presence of the tech giant in the event is a valuable promotional tool for the city. “The top honchos of Alibaba confirmed of going to Davao to join ICON. We should take this opportunity of being placed in their map as a destination. Their coming over is really something that would make others say: Why Davao and what’s in Davao?” Ms. Monteverde said at the Habi at Kape forum. Officials of Alibaba Cloud, the group’s data intelligence backbone, will speak during the information and communications technology forum of the conference as part of their participation. “But they might take on other interesting topics they are very capable of,” she added. DCCCII Executive Vice-President John Carlo B. Tria, for his part, said more foreign investors have been taking notice of Davao City, hometown of President Rodrigo R. Duterte, and the Davao Region as whole because of its stable economic growth. “We have consistent economic growth because the growth you are seeing now has been happening for the last five years,” he said. This year’s Davao ICON, with the theme “Davao: Your Southeast Asian Investment Destination,” will also have presentations from various foreign chambers, including the European Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines (ECCP), Japanese Chamber of Commerce of Mindanao (JCCM), American Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines (AmCham), and the Canadian Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines (CanCham). — Maya M. Padillo

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