NAGA CITY - The Metro Naga Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MNCCI) is all set for the 3rd Bicol Business Week slated on June 24 to July 1, 2007.

        Highlighting agri-aqua development, consumer goods quality enhancement, and the booming real estate and tourism industries as Bicol’s engines of growth, the 3rd edition of the Bicol Business Week promises to bring once more to the fore the best of local products, services and business opportunities. With updates on product and service trends the business week aims to place Bicol back in the business map, after the devastations wrought by last year’s destructive typhoons.

        “There is no turning back; problems must be turned into opportunities and there is reason for every Bicolano businessman and entrepreneur, hurt by the recent calamities, to strive even harder in exploring regional opportunities,” Engr. Emeterio ‘Boy’ Aman, president of MNCCI and a leading real estate developer in Bicol said.

        Abet Bercasio, MNCCI director and chair of the business week, said that exhibit booths and designated display areas at the sprawling activity center at LCC Mall here have almost been booked by over a hundred exhibitors and traders from Metro Manila and elsewhere in Bicol.

        Coincidentally, the business event dovetails the city’s earlier charter day celebration last June 18 and the annual convention of the Bicol National Association of America on June 24 to 29 which the cities of Legazpi and Naga and the provinces of Albay and Camarines Sur are jointly hosting for homecoming Bicolanos based in the American continent. They have been specially invited to grace the annual “Halyao Awards” which is the search for the region’s most outstanding Bicolano businessmen.

        The first Bicol Business Week was held at the Naga City Civic Center in 2005 which attracted 100 exhibitors and more than 10,000 visitors.

        It moved to Plaza Quezon and Plaza Rizal in 2006, which drew more exhibitors and clients with the addition of ICT show and franchising exhibits as major event components aside from the traditional crowd-drawing agri-aqua fair.

        This year, the event will feature generous exposure on real estate and tourism development, which the Bicol region has been experiencing with remarkable progress in recent years.

        Naga City, for one, is in the center of heightened housing projects and construction of retirement villages, leisure farms, and commercial establishments.

        Tourism resorts and other leisure facilities are sprouting in other provinces in Bicol, notably Camarines Sur, Sorsogon and Masbate while Albay, home of the famous Mayon Volcano, is doubling its rehabilitation effort to eventually heal the scars left by the typhoon in the late part of 2006.