Philippine International Convention Center

out in the cold.

Last Friday, I attended a forum organized by the Global Renewables Alliance, GRA, and the Global Wind Energy Council, GWEC, in the aftermath of the 44th ASEAN Ministers on Energy Meeting, AMEM, and the ASEAN Energy Business Forum, AEBF, held at the Philippine International Convention Center last week.

Due to a number of unavoidable commitments I was not able to attend the AMOM-EBF myself and had to rely on my vast network of spooks and informants for updates, so the Friday briefing added some valuable context to what I was hearing, plus the all-important joint statement issued by the ASEAN energy leaders at the conclusion of the AMOM.

As Friday's forum was organized by renewable energy leaders, there was obviously a clear angle to their focus of what they thought was important in the AMOM-EBF event, but to be fair, except for only mentioning nuclear energy and passing, it apparently was a much bigger topic in the main meetings.

In 1976, the International Monetary Fund and World Bank hold their annual meeting in Manila, and a new luxury hotel, the Philippine Plaza, goes up on the bay to host the delegates.

Next to it, the Philippine International Convention Center, which will claim to be the first purpose-built international convention center in Asia.

The coastal complex now has theaters, hotels, and meeting halls arranged along the shore like a stage set, an 88-hectare complex of reclaimed land.

Then come the hospitals, a heart center, a lung center, a kidney center, each state-of-the-art, each a showpiece, each quickly nicknamed the designer hospitals.

But hey, that was what we had and so we used it.

Later on, the feast moved to Camp Aguinaldo, and then to San Juan, and then to Valle Verde, and eventually we reached PICC, Philippine International Convention Center, one of the most beautiful venues in our country.

Today, the feast is in 32 countries around the world.

I mean, what a journey! And you know what? We enjoyed every single step.