On 16 August 2016, STC was invited by the Senate to give a report on the state of the food retail/supermarket industry to the newly-elected Chairman of the Senate Committee on Trade & Industry, Sen. Miguel Zubiri (in coat seated alone at head of one end of the discussion table).  Present from the public sector were the DTI Team headed by Sec. Ramon Lopez and Presidential Adviser on the Economy> Joey Concepcion. Also presenting his AVP was Chairman Guillermo “Bill” Luz of the National Competitiveness Council.  From the private sector were Philexport’s Sergio Luis Ortiz, Federation of Filipino-Chinese Chamber of Commerce & Industry, Inc.’s VP David Chua, officers of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce Phils., the American Chamber of Commerce in the Phils. and the EU Chambers of Commerce & Industry’s Mr. Henry Schumacher, Pres. of the IT & Business Process Assn. Phils. (IBPAP), Federation of Phil. Industries’ Jesus Arranza, Phil. Franchise Assn.’s Pres. Dr. Alan Escalona, CFE & Chairman Emeritus Samie Lim, PRA’s Pres. Atty. Paul Santos and PAGASA’s Pres. Steven T. Cua. Everyone painted an objective yet optimistic picture of the economy based on their industry’s perspective.