The site where the convention center now stands was originally intended for a sports complex to have been dubbed as the "Cebu Mega Dome". A contest was held for its design and the winning entry was the "spinning disc" by architect Alexus Medalla. The project, however, was stalled after some members of the provincial board opposed it. Construction of the convention center broke ground on April 7, 2006, in the 485th Celebration Day of Mandaue. The Cebu provincial government set the construction deadline on November 15, but was not accomplished. The provincial government of Cebu handed over the CICC to the national organizing committee for the ASEAN Summit in after completion of construction in December 2006. The allocated budget for the CICC in May 2006 was around . The budget has increased to , then . In late 2005, Philippine President
Gloria Macapagal Arroyo decided that the province would host the 12th
ASEAN Summit and 2nd
East Asia Summit in December 2006, which was later moved to January 12–15, 2007, due to
Typhoon Utor. The Philippines was supposed to host the twin summits in December 2007. However, Myanmar, the original host for 2006, backed out. Since the province lacked a stand-alone convention center with complete facilities for a large and prestigious international gathering like the ASEAN Summit, Cebu Governor
Gwendolyn Garcia revived the "mega dome" project but with the design revised as a convention center instead of a sports arena. The external structure would still be that of a "spinning disc". A few weeks afterwards a new design was put forwards and was considered, since it was cheaper and easier to build (and smaller), and as there was a time constraint that the Cebu Provincial Government had to stick to. Construction for the substructure began in April 2006 and work on the superstructure itself, which was largely made up of structural steel, glass and aluminum cladding, began three months later. The center was finished four months later in late November and was officially inaugurated on January 6, 2007. == Closing ==