About a hundred Filipino overseas workers attended the 1st Overseas Filipino Congress conducted by the Overseas Filipino Council International, in cooperation with the Negros Oriental government, Thursday and Friday, at the Negros Oriental Convention Center , Dumaguete City .

The council seeks to establish strategic alliances with Filipino groups and individuals worldwide, in an effort to build movements to help address the welfare and well-being of migrant workers and create mass employment in the Philippines .

Chairman of the Council in Bremerton , Washington , USA , Dindo Generoso, said the two-day congress was designed to harness the huge overseas Filipinos resources and expertise and help the country build an industrial base and market the agricultural products.

The country struggles with its political and economic difficulties, as approximately 10 million Filipinos are working overseas in possession of almost unlimited resources which can be directed to address some difficulties, Generoso said.

The Philippines and Spain inked several multimillion-dollar agreements on agriculture and fisheries projects during the four-day state visit here of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, he added.

Topping the list of the agreements for signing are those on food and fisheries, investments on jatropha feedstock production, sustainable coastal management, joint research on biotechnology, micro-financing technology, and cassava biofuel feedstock technology, Generoso added.*MA

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