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Guam - The time is now, not only to invest in Guam but for the island to welcome regional and international business leaders to the first Guam Economic Symposium.


The event kicked-off today at the Hyatt Regency Hotel, with GEDA chairman E.J. Calvo saying, "So far, it's been a big success."


The three-day event hosted by the Guam Economic Development Authority and the Guam Visitors Bureau features regional and international business leaders from the Philippines, Singapore, Korea and Japan representing a variety of industries. Calvo continued, "And so this symposium is a culmination of all the marketing efforts done by GEDA, GVB and the government in general and brings together some networking opportunities and sharing of information of where can businesses truly get started in doing things on Guam."


Today's event focused on several topics from Guam's strategic plan for visitor industry growth to increasing arrivals to Guam.


The keynote speaker was Joshua Cooper Ramo, who spoke on Guam as a portal for commerce between Asia and America. He announced, "We're in the process of a tremendous change in the way the international system operates part of them inherently is the financial system is changing and also with that comes new routes of trade and economic opportunity, Guam's position is its geographically unique in that sense so in a networked economy the role for a place like Guam is maybe very different than it had been in the past but that also means the opportunities are very different."


Ramo is the vice chairman of Kissinger Associates and a director for the Starbucks and FedEx corporations. He has lived in China for the past 12 years and shares the value of Guam's location, saying, "I think Guam is tremendously important for the US-China relation for any number of reasons. It is the part of the United States that is the closest to china so the opportunities for investment ties and trade ties obviously are quite tremendous."


The symposium continues Thursday with discussion on Guam's strategic position in Asia and building Guam's infrastructure. Calvo noted, "I think this is something we should build upon and every year try to have a marketing effort to explore economic opportunities and see how our plans are working out so I definitely think this is something we can look forward to seeing more of."