SM Prime Holdings Inc.’s SMX Convention Center said its goal is to host international gatherings of leaders, such as the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) and World Economic Forum (WEF) meetings.

Dexter Deyto, vice president and general manager for SMX Convention Center, said that although the company has a positive view on the growth of the meetings and conference market in the country, most of its clients are still based in the country, such as the convention of professional organizations.

“I will have to be honest that our market is still predominantly domestic. We really would like to see more events coming in very soon, hoping to get the Apec and WEF meetings to be hosted in our Davao facilities,” Deyto told reporters.

Apec organizers were in Davao over the weekend to scout for possible facilities for its upcoming meeting in the Philippines in 2015.

Deyto said if SMX Davao can hold the meetings of WEF scheduled in 2014, that would make the facility a prime candidate for possible venues of the Apec meeting to be held the following year.

He said its SMX Davao facility, which could accommodate up to 5,300 people, needs to host various regional events in order to compete with other venues.

“This is one of those times that there is now an effort together with the DOT [Department of Tourism] to invite multinational companies to bring in their regional meetings and events to Manila as a prelude to the WEF and to the Apec meeting in the next two years,” Deyto said.

As a group, Deyto said the company is only putting up a handful of SMX convention centers in the country as it has already covered the three main islands of the Philippines.

“As long as we covered these key destinations in Luzon, the Visayas and Mindanao, we will develop that market first. Putting up malls is easy because you will only think of consumers. In our case, our market is small. So we really have to study [before we put up a convention center],” Deyto said.

He added that its new facility in Cebu, where SM is putting up a Mall of Asia-type development, would probably be a stand-alone facility. But the rest of its succeeding convention centers, using the SMX brand, would be inside shopping malls.

He said the company has no definite timetable yet to put up SMX in other parts of the country.

SM, he said, is planning to establish a convention facility in the northern part of the country, and another one in Mindanao in its facilities in Cagayan de Oro.

SMX has a stand-alone convention center in Mall of Asia in Pasay City. The others are inside shopping malls such in SM Aura in Taguig and in SM Lanang in Davao.