PALO, Leyte-The Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry Tacloban-Leyte Inc. (PCCI- Tacloban-Leyte Inc.) staged a two-day business conference and exhibit with using ‘bouncing back better through sustainable technology and innovation’ as its theme.
Topics during the conferences centered on digital marketing, agricultural modernization, and the tourism industry.
PCCI-Tacloban-Leyte Inc. president Eugene Tan said that the activity is the first face-to-face business conference by the local PCCI chapter since the COVID-19 pandemic broke out in March 2020.
In an interview, Tan said that digital marketing must be encouraged among local businesses.
He also admitted most of the members of the business group are still suffering from financial losses which he believed could be recovered in five year time.
However, the activity can be a start, he said, adding that they included agriculture in the discussion since they have been getting feedbacks from rice millers that the local farmers have been producing less rice due to high production cost.
Governor Carlos Jericho ‘Icot’ Petilla, the main speaker for the first day of the conference, said that digitalization is the key in the recent times.
When Petilla noticed that most of his audience were students he focused his presentation on courses being offered by schools, calling most of the current courses as ‘traditional’ like education and criminology.
“We have to change the way we think because we will be left behind. Our schools have to look into in-demand jobs in this digital age,” the governor, who owned a business processing outsourcing business, said.
“We need to change our curriculum to adapt to the signs of the times,” he added.
Coders, ethical hackers, online merchandisers, electronic gamers, and application developers are among the most in-demand jobs in the world at present, according to Petilla.
He also informed that the provincial government of Leyte is working on to fully digitalize all the services and transactions in their offices for the benefit of the general populace. (LIZBETH ANN A. ABELLA)
