The APEC 2015 National Organizing Committee has initially identified eight hotels in Bacolod City as qualified to host delegates of the APEC meetings scheduled on April 29 and 30, Rhoderick Samonte, executive director of the local organizing committee, said yesterday.

Samonte said the NOC will conduct a final inspection in Bacolod City tomorrow especially on the hotel sites. It will be a final check and review of the requirements on their expectations from Bacolod City.

He met yesterday with the managers of the hotels in the initial list sent by the NOC to make sure that they are accredited with the Department of Tourism, he said.

The eight hotels initially identified by the NOC are L’Fisher Hotel, Ecotel, Chalet, Avenue Suites, Business Inn, Planta Centro Bacolod Hotel, Metro Inn, Eastview Hotel and GT Hotel, he added.

Samonte said they are expecting about 250 official delegates. Half of them are foreign and half are domestic visitors, aside from the APEC staff and other guests that will run to a total of 400 to 500 individuals visiting Bacolod.

They have reserved 600 rooms for the APEC delegates, he said.

Samonte said they hope that by Friday they will be provided information on the topics to be discussed during the two-day meetings, as well as the resource persons.

He said he has communicated these concerns to Philippine Ambassador Marciano Paynor Jr., Director General of the APEC 2015 NOC Monday and he was assured that they will be the ones to link up with the Department of Finance, which is the host agency.

Samonte said that as of yesterday, they had not yet heard from the DOF and they hope that by tomorrow or Friday, they will be part of the team that will visit the city.

They are waiting for a brief profile from the DOF of the delegates and the top level representations that will arrive in Bacolod. These are the vital information not yet provided to them including the topics and resource persons, etc, he said.

Samonte said the executive committee also met yesterday to review their preparations and to give the team that will be sent by the NOC additional information, he said.

The NOC team will survey the roads in Bacolod and make a recommendation regarding the suggested routes from the hotel to SMX Convention Center, Samonte said.*CGS

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