For the first time ever, the Mindanao Food Congress will have a Partner Country in India, through the Embassy of India in Manila.
The Mindanao Food Congress and Oro BEST Expo 2022 will be held on October 26-30, 2022, at The Limketai Luxe hotel and at the Atrium, Limketkai Mall, respectively, in Cagayan de Oro City.
The Oro BEST Expo, the longest running and biggest trade exposition in Northern Mindanao will be held simultaneously with the MFC.
The annual expo provides micro, small and medium-scale enterprises the opportunity and venue to showcase their products and services, and expand their network and linkages.
The National Science and Technology Week (NSTW) sa Amihanang Mindanao will also be held simultaneously at the Atrium on the same dates through the Department of Science and Technology Region 10.
As the MFC Partner Country, India will have the largest exhibit at the Oro BEST Expo 2022 where it will showcase its food and agriculture technology innovations and renewable energy applications.
It will also host a Welcome Dinner and Fellowship with an India Cultural Night at the Atrium on the MFC’s opening date, October 26, 2022.
The Embassy of India in Manila, through Ambassador Shambhu Kumaran, has been aggressively establishing linkages with regional business organizations in the Philippines to promote greater participation and partnership for sustainable agricultural growth and enhanced food security between the two nations.
“We do recognize the Philippines is a very large country, and a lot of business activities in the outreach have to happen at the regional level, and the Oro Chamber is one of the very first chambers that we have engaged and the outcomes have been very, very positive,” said Indian Ambassador to the Philippines Shambhu S. Kumaran in a pre-recorded message during the 2nd Quarter General Membership Meeting of the Cagayan de Oro Chamber of Commerce and Industry Foundation, Inc. (Oro Chamber) held July 8th at Upper Canitoan, Cagayan de Oro.
H.E. Kumaran expressed his delight with how the budding relationship with the Oro Chamber which commenced on the 18th of May with the Indian Business Road Show was now being taken forward.
This was followed by a courtesy call of Oro Chamber officials at the Indian Embassy in Manila on June 14 to firm up India’s participation as a Partner Country for the Mindanao Business Conference to be hosted by the Oro Chamber in Cagayan de Oro City on October 26-30, 2022.
“I was very happy to receive Pres. Ray Talimio and his team were here a few weeks ago, and we did discuss the outcomes of that business road show. Sectors that were identified appeared quite promising, in particular, the IT and education sectors, renewable energy, ceramics, chemicals, and of course, agriculture,” the envoy noted.
“We would like to maintain this active engagement with the chamber, as part of the embassy’s regional outreach with the regional business bodies of the Philippines,” he added.
Oro Chamber hosted the India Business Roadshow in partnership with the Indian Embassy last May 18, 2022.
The virtual event presented business opportunities and potential partnerships between local businesses and their Indian counterparts. Areas of interest and opportunities discussed included agribusiness and packaging, chemicals, agrochemicals, construction (ceramics & plumbing), IT and digital, education technology, infrastructure and renewable energy.
Among the Indian businesses which presented were SABIC (Mr. Janardhanan Ramanujalu), Advanta Seeds (Mr. Seraj Ahmad), Tata Consultancy Services Asia Pacific (Mr. Girish Ramachandran), Hero Future Energies (Mr. Oman Singh), CAPEXIL (Mr. Samir Kumar Ghosh), Transrail Lighting Ltd. (Mr. Sanjay Vohra), Aptech Ltd. (Mr. Kallol Mukherjee), and Indofil Philippines, Inc. (Mr. Narendra Sagrolikar).
“I’m aware there have been continuing discussions on the edu-tech side, especially on the IT education upskilling and re-skilling. I welcome this and commit again to support this activity,” H.E. Kumaran said.
He cited how India is not only the fastest growing large economy in the world, but its fastest growing democracy as well.
“And we are very keen, and we have seen a lot of energy in the India-Philippines relationship. It’s an old relationship, but it has a lot of new dimensions and the economic and trade engagement is one of the critical new dimensions,” he noted.
The envoy cited how President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. was very, very supportive of a stronger engagement with India and continuing the new energy and new dynamism in our bilateral partnership.
“We have identified agriculture as one of the key areas in addition to health care, which is again an important area, the financial sector, fin-tech and a variety of other areas including IT where we have a very strong cooperation already,” H.E. Kumaran shared.
“So I look forward very much to continuing this engagement with the Oro Chamber , and looking ahead, we are keen to have an active Indian presence at the Mindanao Food Congress coming up later this year,” he stressed.
We hope to highlight innovations in agriculture technology and renewable energy applications during the food congress,” said Nishikant Singh, First Secretary on Economic and Commerce of the Embassy of India, who represented the Indian ambassador during the event.
H.E. Kumaran expressed his optimism in continuing the Indian Embassy’s engagements with regional business bodies like the Oro Chamber and was looking forward to see a delegation from the chamber visit India later this year or early next year.
“And we would continue to work with Pres Talimio and the team there to identify those areas and sectors which are of interest, so that this can be a process of engagement with multiple points of contact, so we will have maximum chances of success,” the envoy said.
“We are all coming out of a tough time with the pandemic and we now need to find new energy, new drivers of growth. We do have serious challenges to confront. And working together, in partnership,. I believe that India and the Philippines have a better future, a peaceful future for our people and a more prosperous society.”
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