“The only thing that is constant is change,” said Heraclitus, a Greek philosopher who insisted on ever-present change as being the fundamental essence of the universe. Our new President Rodrigo R. Duterte ran and won on a platform advocating change. He vowed to reform the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) which he specially mentioned as one of the most corrupt government agencies and which he initially wanted to be abolished.
THE Department of Energy (DoE) is calling for a review on how the previous administration came up with the 70% target reduction in greenhouse gas emissions from a business-as-usual scenario, as talks continue among government agencies to come up with a unified stand on climate change.
LISTED mining companies welcomed the House Speaker’s proposal to require more local processing of ore while discouraging ore exports, but said they must be given time and incentives to comply with any such scheme, which may require more investment and plant construction on their part.
THE government announced a P1.03-billion budget for the systems upgrade contract to support the introduction of new light rail carriages from China, to be used on Metro Rail Transit line 3 (MRT-3).
HEIGHTENED de-risking among foreign correspondent banks likely led to slower growth in monthly remittance inflows, a senior central bank official said, even though more Filipinos are leaving the country to pursue jobs abroad.
THE House of Representatives will push as a priority bill a requirement for miners to seek a legislative franchise, to raise the level of scrutiny on the industry and avoiding the possibility of miners avoiding sanctions by bribing lower-level bureaucrats.
This column was originally published on July 21 and is being reprinted in this issue because of a computer error that garbled parts of the originally published piece. We apologize to Mr. Villalon for the error. — Ed. Change has come even in the field of real estate broker licensure examinations.
PHILIPPINE business leaders are expecting a business-as-usual reception at the 13th China-ASEAN Business and Investments Summit (CABIS) in September.
THE Department of Energy (DoE) said the new arbitration case filed by Shell Philippines Exploration B.V. (SPEx) against the state would be an opportunity for the national government “to come up with definitive and clear-cut policies in dealing with our partners.”
(Second of two parts) In last week’s column, we talked about how companies see an initial public offering (IPO) as a crowning achievement for the organization, and yet the reality is that an IPO should be seen as a milestone and not an end in itself. We also discussed the challenges that family-owned businesses face when considering an IPO. In this column, we will look into eight key areas that a company has to consider in assessing their readiness for an IPO, as discussed in the publication, EY IPO leaders’ insights.