Davao City Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Inc. (DCCCII) Executive Director Condrado Hernaez said ten big companies and investors belonging to the European Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines (ECCP) have displayed interest in joining this year’s DATE slated on October 23 to 25 at the Davao Convention and Trade Center.

“Yes, advisories and the ongoing conflict in Mindanao have an effect on business, but business events like this (DATE) have to go inviting investors to come, otherwise the economy stops,” Hernaez said in yesterday’s Club 888 Forum at The Marco Polo, Davao.

He said six of the ten ECCP companies that will join the 10th DATE are based in Manila while four are based in Cebu City.

He named some of these ECCP-member companies as Siemens and Nestle.

Last year’s DATE included 50 US-based companies, Hernaez said. DCCCII is DATE’s organizer.

Hernaez said there will be full security throughout the event. Aside from Davcon’s house security, DCCCII members who have security agencies have committed to deploy some of their security men to augment security.

Hernaez said DATE 2008 will feature close to 200 exhibitors including those from the provinces of Davao del Sur, Davao Oriental, Davao del Norte, and Compostela Valley Province.

He said DCCCII is conservatively targeting P79 million booked and direct sales similar to last year’s due to the ongoing economic disturbances such as high inflation rates due to high fuel and food prices.

Unlike the previous years, DCCCII will set up a mechanism to track the delivery rate and value of the book sales in this year’s DATE to determine the exact amount of sales.

This year’s DATE will be different from previous years since it will focus on the environment, Hernaez said.

Organic farm products will be showcased at DATE 2008 aside from the usual and traditional Min-danao products.

Trainings will be focused on the fields of finance, marketing and entrepreneurship, he said. - Judy Quiros