Maniolas

MANILA, Philippines – The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) is allowing operating mines to expand their contract areas provided that these have viable economic reserves. The DENR, through the recommendation of the Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB) has issued Administrative Order (AO) 2014-06 which states that the expansion of areas of existing mines with viable economic deposits would be allowed subject to validation by the Mining Industry Coordinating Council (MICC) through its Technical Working Group on Environmental Protection of which the MGB is part of. Applications for expansion would also be subjected to certain conditions. MGB director Leo Jasareno said the new order was issued in consideration of a number of operating mines in the country that need to expand in existing contract areas to sustain operations. As such, operations of existing mines with dwindling resources could be expanded provided that the expansion area applied for is adjacent to the contract area or is situated within the immediate vicinity or a municipality. Jasareno said a declaration of mining project pre-feasibility (DMPF) should be submitted for the expansion areas to prove the economic viability of deposits. Business ( Article MRec ), pagematch: 1, sectionmatch: 1 The new regulation applies to existing contract areas covered by mineral production and sharing agreements (MPSA), as well as Financial and Technical Assistance Agreements (FTAA). As the new mining policy bans the issuance of new mining contracts pending the legislation of a new taxation scheme for the extractive industry, the new mining areas would Read More …

MANILA, Philippines – Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Governor Amando Tetangco Jr. wants to widen the minimum public float for universal banks to ensure increased transparency and accountability. Under the listing rules of the Philippine Stock Exchange, a company that goes public must sell an initial 10 percent of its initial outstanding capital.  “I personally think that the 10 percent minimum public ownership requirement is on the low side.  Public ownership of a financial institution must be expanded. This should help improve their operations,” Tetangco said. When asked by how much the minimum public float requirement should be increased, Tetangco said:  “It is something that we need to study.” A check on the PSE website showed that UnionBank had the lowest public float among the listed banks at 19 percent, which is almost double the exchange’s 10 percent requirement. Security Bank had the largest public float at 73 percent. Public float or free float represents the shares of a corporation that are in the hands of public investors as opposed to locked-in stock held by company officers, controlling-interest investors, or government. Business ( Article MRec ), pagematch: 1, sectionmatch: 1 Universal banks are mandated by law to go public three years after acquiring their universal banking licenses. Being publicly-listed will make bank operations more transparent to the public as companies listed on the local bourse are required to submit regular disclosures which include financial statements and other transactions that have a material impact on its shareholders. Universal banks  represent the largest Read More …

MANILA, Philippines – The Philippines is looking to enhance its cooperation in terms of trade and investments with South Korea to take advantage of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations’ (Asean) move towards economic integration. Speaking at the Asean-Korea Forum, Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert del Rosario said it is in the interest of the Philippines to pursue a strategic relationship with South Korea. He said the Philippines sees trade and investments as an area of focus in pursuing stronger ties with South Korea. “We offer the Philippines as a gateway to Korea’s engagement to Asean,” he said. He noted that South Korea was among the Philippines’ biggest trading partners last year, accounting for seven percent of total trade. South Korea was also one of the biggest sources of investments to the Philippines, having poured in P8.5 billion last year with 7.2 percent earmarked for manufacturing. Business ( Article MRec ), pagematch: 1, sectionmatch: 1 Park Bun Soon, a professor from Hongik University, said in his presentation in the same event that while economic integration is seen to provide gains for Asean members, there is a need for the Philippines to work with South Korea for it to benefit from such and contribute to the further development of the region. At present, Park noted that the Philippines is the least benefitting from trade and investment cooperation in the Asean. The Philippines trade with other countries in the Asean accounts for only 19.1 percent of its total trade, among the lowest in Read More …

MANILA, Philippines – Mobile health technology company mClinica is expanding its presence in Southeast Asia after getting funds from Kickstart Ventures Inc. of Ayala-led Globe Telecom Inc. Kickstart, together with foreign venture capitalists 500 Startups from Silicon Valley and IMJ Investment partners from Japan, made the infusion to mClinica to bankroll its expansion in Indonesia, Vietnam and Thailand. This is Kickstart’s 19th investment in just over two years, underscoring the Globe subsidiary’s role as the Philippines’ most active institutional fund for seed and early-stage digital startups. mClinica is the largest pharmacy network in the country with a growing network of over 1,400 pharmacies and access to over 20 million customers. “We have been waiting for a solution like this. With mClinica, we now have new ways to access the pharmacy channel more and gather data in the process. This was non-existent before,” Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Philippines country manager Lito Ardeta said. Farouk Meralli, a 28-year old Harvard School of Public Health graduate, worked as an executive in strategy and management for Roche, Johnson & Johnson and Pfizer before taking the entrepreneurial route and founding mClinica.  Business ( Article MRec ), pagematch: 1, sectionmatch: 1 Meralli discovered first-hand the challenges pharmaceutical companies face in many emerging markets. “While emerging markets were growing rapidly, we did not have access to the same data we had in more mature markets,” Meralli said. Through mClinica, drug companies could reach pharmacies on a large scale through mobile phones and furthermore create programs that help patients Read More …

(Expressing my gratitude to the CMMA for awarding the column Best Business Column for 2014.) Leadership is never easy. People desire positions of high leadership without knowing the many challenges that accompany such titles.  Most people equate leadership with high positions, but this is not quite the case and I do have an explanation for this. These people are focused on the perks of leadership; they do not understand the price of leadership. When you’re a leader, all eyes are on you. Every person makes mistakes. No one is exempted from making wrong decisions. When you were a junior, you probably got some tongue lashing or a memo. As a leader, you get the blame for every mistake. The entire team criticizes and comments against you. Your bosses start to doubt your capabilities and you begin to doubt yourself as well. Business ( Article MRec ), pagematch: 1, sectionmatch: 1 I’ve made many bad decisions when I was building my career as an executive in the companies I worked for and I’ve also made many bad decisions as an entrepreneur. But thankfully, over the years I have learned to recognize the warning signs of a bad leadership decision. This is the value of evaluated experience. Perhaps you might find these warning signs helpful, but please do consider the context. These are just hints and not foolproof. But should this list of hints help you make better decisions and avoid bad decisions, then I’d be glad because it has attained its Read More …