A city councilor is urging public and private firms to finish roads digging in the city before the start of the Meetings, Incentives, Conventions and Exhibits (MICE) 2020.
“I call on the Davao City Water District (DCWD) and the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) to please finish your diggings now. Please don’t start any diggings that you cannot finish before September 2020,” said Councilor Myrna Dalodo-Ortiz.
“Those diggings clogged up the streets causing traffic problems.”
She also urged the water and power utilities to do the maintenance months prior to the event.
“Please don’t interrupt power and water supply at the height of the MICE convention just because you have to do preventive maintenance,” the City Council committee chair on tourism said.
Ortiz has appealed for cooperation from both public and private sectors as she filed before the City Council the proposed ordinance to allow Mayor Sara Duterte to sign the memorandum of agreement with the Department of Tourism and the MICE Executive Committee for the project “Let’s Meet in Davao.”
“This proposed MOA expresses the essential responsibilities of the contracting parties,” Ortiz said in her privilege speech in yesterday’s regular session.
The MICE Convention will be held at the SMX Convention Center at in SM Lanang on Sept. 28-30 next year.
The city won the bid for the event last Oct. 21.
Ortiz also called on hotel establishments to do their responsibilities on accommodating the guests as the hotels will be where the MICE delegates will be staying.
“I call on our hotel establishments, please make sure you have enough competent personnel, it should be more than the usual number of personnel you employ on a regular day. Make sure you have enough personnel that you would need when your hotel is at full occupancy and please don’t serve your guest exactly the same food every meal,” she said.
The councilor also appealed to the city government to allow the use of the city’s facilities and permit the installation of promotional materials such as other logistical support for the successful holding of mice convention in the city.
She also said that 500-600 local and foreign delegates coming from MICE industries such as airlines, hotels, resorts, convention centers, events and exhibit organizers will be attending the said grand convention.
MICE Convention is not new in Davao. It has been hosted by the city in 2013.
“MICE 2013 was a resounding success. We did it once, we can do it again,” she said.
