President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo will deliver the keynote address tomorrow at the 10th Anniversary Conference of the APEC Business Advisory Council at the Mactan Shangri-La Hotel in Cebu, a press release from Malacañang said.

Arroyo, who attended the ABAC Advisory Meeting yesterday, will be introduced by Ambassador Roberto Romulo, ABAC Philippines chair, in the morning event expected to draw some 200 ABAC members and guests. Before her speech, she will receive in a courtesy call speaker Prof. Jagdish Bhagwati, university professor for economics and law, and UN Commission on Trade and Development Secretary General Supachai Panitchpakdi, the press release said.

Arroyo yesterday convened a strategic planning session of her International Board of Advisors, senior executives in the Business Process Outsourcing sector, most of them representing companies with significant investments in the country. The planning session focused on the development of the BPO sector which now employs 200,000 people in the Philippines, the press release said.

The meeting was aimed at creating more BPO sector jobs by positioning the Philippines as a competitive location for higher value-added outsourcing activities, including such areas as third party logistics, knowledge management, and supply chain management.

The ABAC conference on the theme "Revisiting APEC Means Business," will discuss the future of the global trading system in the light of the challenges to the primacy of the World Trade Organization as well as APEC's continued relevance to business in the Asia- Pacific region, the press release added.*

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