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William Y. Concepcion |
Businessman William Y. Concepcion completes a five-year stint as president of the Camarines Sur Chamber of Commerce and Industry with an sterling record his successors will find difficult to replicate
He entered business 40 years ago in a dramatic fashion, revolutionizing the transportation system in Naga City by overhauling the centuries-old caretela for the now ubiquitous trimobile. As dealer of the Bridgestone brand of motorcycles he launched in the early 1960s a sales strategy that afforded many idle hands in Naga City the opportunity to earn units at only Php 6-a-day amortization. Today, trimobiles are everywhere enabling students to go to their schools and employees to their work places at much faster pace, and business to move more briskly.
From the trimobile boom, William Yee Concepcion deftly branched out into varied business ventures, all with amazing success. He is now at the helm of the biggest and reputedly the best printing press in the whole Bicol Region if not Southern Luzon, Willprint Graphics Centre, as founder and president. Willprint Graphics Centre has its main building at Concepcion Grande, Naga City with branches in Legaspi City, Daet and Quezon City.
He is also founder and president of the Naga City Montessori School, Inc.
But to many in Camarines Sur and to his peers among businessmen not only in Bicol but in Metro Manila Concepcion’s more monumental achievement is not in the phenomenal growth of his business ventures. His proverbial Golden Touch extends much beyond the sphere of his own business interests.
For the last five years he had as its president steered the Camarines Sur Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CSCCI) into one of the most active, most robust aggregations of its kind, soaring to prominence and distinction not just within Bicol but on the national level and, more incredibly, abroad.
He, too, is in the forefront of a humanitarian endeavor helping build homes for Willprint Graphics Centre main building at Concepcion Grande, Naga City poor and middle income families as president of the Bicol Habitat for Humanity. It is one preoccupation that really touches the lives of people as it does with his own life. “I find supreme fulfillment seeing people own their own homes,” Concepcion says.
In the CSCCI, he more than just set the parameters and the benchmarks for his successor, Dr. Fabio Figuracion.
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President Arroyo, Congressman Luis R. Villafuerte and CSCCI president William Y. Concepcion at the Manila Hotel ceremony where Camarines Sur was awarded in 2003 as the Most Business-Friendly LGU in the Philippines |
With him at the helm of the CSCCI from its inception five years ago, the organization had routinely made waves enough to lift the organization to such distinction as recipient of the Most Outstanding Young Chamber Award in October, 2005.
In 2003, the CSCCI nominated the Province of Camarines Sur for the Most Business Friendly LGU in the Philippines during the 29th Philippine Business Conference of the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI) which Camarines Sur handily won. Camarines Sur was again nominated the following year and still received a Special Citation.
Under Concepcion’s stewardship, the CSCCI formalized a sisterhood agreement with the Taiwanese Chamber of the South Philippines. As the chamber received the Most Outstanding Young Chamber Award in October, 2005 at the Manila Hotel it also was given a special citation for successfully hosting the 14th South Luzon Area Business Conference (SOLABC) in Camarines Sur with no less than President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo as guest.
After hosting Taiwanese businessmen here in Camarines Sur on January 5, 2006, the visitors proposed to put up a plantation in the province which could provide vast employment opportunities. If allowed the use of a substantial agriculture area the Taiwanese investment plan can materialize anytime.
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Signing of MOA between Camarines Sur and Hsinchu City, Taiwan, Republic of China arranged by CSCCI. Camarines Sur Gov. L-Ray Villafuerte is seated center in photo. |
CSCCI members themselves were on a trade mission to Hsinchu Country in Taiwan in August, 2005, aided by their sister Taiwanese Chamber of South Philippines. CSCCI had spearheaded the organization and mobilization of Barangay Business Councils, designed to facilitate commerce and trade of government based investments at barangay level. He had also vigorously pushed for the One Town One Product (OTOP) concept and assisted some Camarines Sur towns in determining their main outputs. CSCCI practically even went out of its way to promote family planning and become part of the Anti-Crime Task Force especially in its crusade against illegal gambling and human smuggling. In sum, under his leadership CSCCI was not only in the mainstream of business-related activities but at the vortex of social reform program undertakings as well.
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Formalizing sister chamber relationship between the Taiwan Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Camarines Sur Chamber of Commerce and Industry. |
Numerous essential formal agreements calculated to perk up business were forged within the five-year period.
Among the most notable covenants were:
1. The MOA between the Small Business Guarantee and Finance Corporation and the CSCCI on the availment of loans and credit guarantees to qualified members of the CSCCI.
2.The MOA between the Barlin Hog Raisins, Quedancor, CSCCI and Beatrice Corporation for the growth of the hog industry in Camarines Sur;
3.MOA between the National Support Fund and the CSCCI to provide credit financing for the countryside development of small and medium industries;
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William Y. Concepcion receives an award from the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry for successfully hosting the SOLABC |
“What Mr. Concepcion has done is very, very difficult to replicate, even approximate,” one CSCCI member opined. “It is because of the very high standard of performance that he has set that his successors will have to be exceptionally efficient also to sustain the image built up during the first five years of the organization,” he added.
No wonder in a heartwarming show of appreciation, the CSCCI voted to confer on William Y. Concepcion the title Chairman Emeritus of the CSCCI..
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Willprint Graphics Centre main building at Concepcion Grande, Naga City |
