JEDDAH, 23 August — Filipinos in the Western Region who wish to engage in business at home will find a good friend at the Philippine Consulate General : the Economic Diplomacy Unit (EDU).
Special project of Consul General Kadatuan P. Usop, the new unit was organized recently to carry out the Arroyo government’s intensified trade and investment campaign.
Paisal Abdullah, the outgoing commercial and trade officer at the consulate, said the EDU is meant to deal not only with foreign business entities or investors but also with the so-called Overseas Filipino Investors or OFIs, as President Arroyo wants to call Filipino migrant workers also known as “new heroes.”
“The EDU will help in facilitating of documents necessary to open a business in the Philippines,” Abdullah told Arab News.
It also seeks to help spur OFW interest in entrepreneurship by organizing investment and livelihood seminars.
The EDU’s first activitiy of this kind was 1st OFW Investment Seminar held at the Al-Harithy Hotel on Aug. 9, a brainchild of Consul General Usop.
During the seminar, participants were encouraged by Ambassador Bahnarim Guinomla to try going into the franchising business, which was endorsed by the main resource person as the most attractive business prospect to overseas Filipinos of late.
In his lecture, Emy de Guzman, the general manager of Sky Freight Forwarders, explained that the franchising business is being promoted under the “Order Negosyo” program of the Philippine International Trade Center (PITC), a division of the Department of Trade and Industry.
The EDU headed the secretariat that processed the line-up of participants, printed handouts and certificates, and manned the registration table during the seminar.
Others involved in the project were the OWWA, and yhe Philippine National Bank (PNB) represented by Manny Carandang.
The OFW Cooperative Council, which had been conducting livelihood, entrepreneurship as well as computer literacy the past five years, lent its support to the project.
Meanwhile, Abdullah explained that technical trouble involving the “Order Negosyo” website of PITC is being addressed.
Those want to contact EDU office at the consulate can call Rose Justiniano at telephone numbers 667-8101, 663-0354, and 660-0348.
