philstar.com – Business – Page 171

philstar.com - Business

Local version of 'Lemon Law' sought

Economy

Jan 112014

MANILA, Philippines – A lawmaker has filed a bill similar to the “lemon law” of the United States to protect the buyers of motor vehicles, particularly those that fail to meet the standards of quality and performance. Rep. Mark Villar (Lone District, Las Piñas City) said House Bill 3199 would strengthen consumer protection in the purchase of brand new vehicles and provides legal remedies to buyers who face the ill fate of lemon automobiles ending up in their hands. Villar said the historical antecedents of the lemon law originated in the United States and was crafted primarily to return to the consumer the full value of money. “It provides that if a manufacturer or its authorized dealer cannot successfully repair a defective product within a reasonable number of repair attempts. The manufacturer must either promptly replace or repurchase the product,” Villar explained. Villar said given the fast-paced nature of the current time, owning a motor vehicle now is not considered a luxury but more of a necessity to cope with everyday duties and responsibilities. “Coping with this necessity does not come cheap. Owning a motor vehicle is a big investment and could take a substantial chunk of one’s savings. For some unfortunate buyers, an investment in this endeavor has become for naught after they acquired a ‘lemon’ or those that fail to meet the standards of quality and performance,” Villar said. Business ( Article MRec ), pagematch: 1, sectionmatch: 1 The lawmaker added that because of this, buyers continue with Read More …

Net foreign direct investments surge 66%

Economy

Jan 102014

Net foreign direct investments surge 66%

MANILA, Philippines – Net foreign direct investment inflows rose 66 percent to $254 million in October last year from $153 million in the same period in 2012 amid the country’s robust growth and favorable macroeconomic fundamentals, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas reported yesterday. “The notable rise in foreign investments into the country reflects favorable investor sentiment on the back of the country’s macroeconomic stability amid challenging global conditions,” the central bank said. The economy expanded 7.4 percent in the first nine months of last year, faster than the government’s six- to seven-percent target. Inflation stood at an average of three percent in 2013, at the low end of the BSP’s three- to five-percent target range. Central bank data showed net equity capital grew 19 percent to $68 million in October from $57 million in the previous year, while reinvested earnings plunged 44 percent to $50 million from $90 million. Placements in debt instruments or borrowings made by local subsidiaries from the parent companies, meanwhile, surged to $135 million from $6 million. Gross equity placements in October last year came from the US, Singapore, Switzerland, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. These funds went into manufacturing, transportation and storage, financial and insurance, real estate, and mining and quarrying. Business ( Article MRec ), pagematch: 1, sectionmatch: 1 In the first 10 months of 2013, net FDI inflows went up 35 percent to $3.361 billion from $2.485 billion in the same period in 2012. Net equity capital placements slid 48 percent to $658 million Read More …

The year that was in business…

Economy

Jan 102014

I musty apologize to our dear readers for rudely interrupting this short series on our Business Yearender which I started on the first week of January. I expected to be back in town in time to churn out this second part but my flight schedule got mired somewhere – it’s a very long story, but try as hard as I could, I couldn’t get a flight back in time. So sorry. For the first part of this short series, we had assessments from the top leaders of PhilExport (Mr. Sergio Ortiz-Luis, president), the Philippine Chamber of Handicrafts Industry of PCHI (Mr. Dennis Orlina, honorary president and Mrs. Mila Lacson, current president) and Philippine Plastics Industry Association (Mr. Peter Quintana, president). We go now to the meat industry. Business & Leisure (B&L) talked to Mr. Jesus Cham, director of the Meat Importers & Traders Association (MITA) whose tales of woe have not stopped since 2012. And 2013 has been another tough year for all of the country’s meat importers, he said, and because of the government’s tough new regulations on accreditation, about one-third of the importers have dropped out of the scene. He went further to say that government has apparently bowed down to pressure from local producers to collect more customs duties from the importers, so apart from a big number from their ranks bowing out, many of them have been slowing down. This development has resulted in price increases for imported meat products, and Mr. Cham decries the government’s Read More …

Phl banks' capitalization improves

Economy

Jan 092014

MANILA, Philippines (Xinhua) – Capitalization of Philippine universal and commercial banks (U/KBs) improved at the end of June 2013, the local central bank said today. The Philippine central bank said the combined capital adequacy ratio (CAR) of the country’s U/KBs reached nearly double the minimum amount prescribed by regulators. At the end of June, Philippine banks’ capital adequacy ratio ( CAR) stood at 17.98 percent on solo basis and 19.24 percent on consolidated basis. These ratios are better than the 17.75 percent CAR on a solo basis and 18.89 percent on a consolidated basis for Philippine banks recorded in March 2013. “These high ratios are still driven by the industry’s Tier 1 capital, the highest quality among instruments eligible as bank capital,” the central bank said in a statement. CAR serves as the buffer of Philippine banks for potential losses from risky assets. Higher CAR levels are an indication of the health of the banking sector. Business ( Article MRec ), pagematch: 1, sectionmatch: 1 Up until the end of 2013, U/KBs are required to maintain a CAR of at least 10 percent. Starting this month, Philippine banks must maintain higher CAR levels as part of reforms under the Basel III accord.

Planning, monitoring seminar set

Economy

Jan 082014

MANILA, Philippines – The Center for Global Best Practices is launching a pioneering two-day program titled Best Practices in Planning, Scheduling and Monitoring Project Implementation on Tuesday and Wednesday, Jan. 28 and 29, 2014 at the Edsa Shangri-La Hotel, Mandaluyong City. Learn the best practices in applying the cutting-edge and world-class project management tools to be presented in a simplified and practical format by project management guru and course director Ken Smith. Smith has over 40 years experience designing, scheduling, implementing, monitoring and evaluating social, economic, and business development projects in many countries and technical sectors. He has been tapped by the US Agency for International Development (USAID), the World Bank group, UN agencies, the African Development Bank, and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to teach project management as part of capacity building for many governments around the world. Attendees in this seminar will also get a free project management toolkit with a compilation of best practices tools and techniques for quick and easy use. This software includes 83 project management templates that are very useful to track and monitor your projects. Business ( Article MRec ), pagematch: 1, sectionmatch: 1 This is a limited-seats-only program with pre-registration required. Interested participants may avail of the group discounts for three or more participants and earlier bird discounts when you register on or before Dec. 28, 2013. For registration or more details check www.cgbp.org or call Manila lines 842-7148/50 or 556-8968/69; Cebu lines (032) 512-3106/07 or Baguio (074) 423-5148.

A balanced life and a growing economy

Economy

Jan 082014

Manny V. Pangilinan, Chairman of the PLDT Group and Lance Gokongwei president and chief operating officer of JG Summit Holdings Inc. hope for economic progress for our country this 2014. For the past weeks, I have shared the wishes of many entrepreneurs who have been part of the Go Negosyo’s journey in helping many of our youth and small entrepreneurs pursue their dreams by inspiring and mentoring them. Many of them share a personal wish of a balanced life, as many entrepreneurs who are so passionate in their businesses begin to realize the importance of the other more valuable intangibles in life. In the case of Jojo Claudio, he talks about spending more quality time with his children, putting a balance between work and family time, and this is the same with many of our women entrepreneurs. It is very clear that many of them are happy with the current administration’s objective of improving the level of government transparency and its fight against corruption.Many wish P-Noy all the success to see this happen before his term ends. Many hope to see the level of poverty in our country reduced and this is why they have spent time in joining the many activities of Go Negosyo as they feel a booming negosyo is the lasting solution to poverty. While our country in the last quarter has been hit with calamities, the Filipino spirit is very much alive, not only resilient, and that many view the year 2014 to bring Read More …

Mayhem at PAL terminal

Economy

Jan 082014

Whatever happened to the buoyant expectations generated by Philippine Airlines’ expansion plans that saw the flag carrier ramping up the hiring of new cabin crew and ground staff? At the PAL Terminal (also known as NAIA Terminal 2), departing passengers were under the impression that everything was so disorganized with not enough counters to attend to them – and made even worse by the increased number of people traveling during the Christmas season. The arrival area however is something else, with tired passengers from long haul flights from San Francisco, Vancouver and Los Angeles greeted by utter chaos and confusion, their frustration levels rising at having to wait for their luggage for one hour and a half. Apparently, PAL unloaded luggage from three different flights all at the same time – and as you can see from the photos, it was such a mess at the terminal with people trying to squeeze in to check the carousels for their bags and other stuff. In fact, we’ve heard complaints from bewildered passengers who said they were told by PAL flight crew to wait for their baggage at a particular carousel number – only to find out that their bags and balikbayan boxes were all lumped into one carousel. By then they were already exhausted, hungry and thirsty and not surprisingly, angry at the mix-up. A visitor from Regina, Canada, Mr. David Bowman said he was really looking forward to his trip to Manila, anticipating a pleasant and relaxing experience with the Read More …

Banks to abide by new consumer protection guidelines

Economy

Jan 082014

Banks to abide by new consumer protection guidelines

MANILA, Philippines – Banks will have to abide by new consumer protection guidelines this year, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas said, as the measure is already being finalized and aimed to be launched in the first semester of 2014. “We have further improved and strengthened consumer protection by formalizing a… framework against which banks will be measured or assessed,” BSP Governor Amando M. Tetangco Jr. said. Tetangco explained the BSP will be releasing guidelines with which banks can put together their own consumer protection policies. At the same time, banks will be assessed on a scale of one to four, with four being the highest, on how adequate their consumer protection practices are. The rating system will be similar to CAMELS, which assesses a bank with regard to its capital adequacy, assets, management capability, earnings, liquidity and sensitivity. “There are certain guidelines on how an adequate consumer protection framework can be organized and this year, we will start to assess banks on the basis of this framework,” Tetangco said. Business ( Article MRec ), pagematch: 1, sectionmatch: 1 “We are working on this now. We will launch this hopefully sometime in the early part of the year,” Tetangco added. The BSP last year announced it will be introducing a framework for the protection of customers of banks and other financial institutions. The framework is meant to create a standard with which banks can be assessed in terms of how they handle customer complaints or how well their consumer protection policies Read More …

Globe’s Bithos named IT Exec of the Year

Economy

Jan 082014

Globe’s Bithos named IT Exec of the Year

MANILA, Philippines – Globe Telecom chief operating advisor Peter George Bithos was cited as IT Executive of the Year by Cyberpress, an organization composed of information technology (IT) journalists from the print and online media in the Philippines. Bithos was instrumental in steering growth and profitability of the company’s mobile and broadband businesses with an innovative product portfolio and a sound strategy to drive superior customer experience. Under his helm, mobile subscriber base has grown by 14 percent as of end-September last year, reaching 36.5 million. Broadband customer base has reached 1.9 million with a 15-percent increase from previous year. In 2013, Bithos led the successful launch of the company’s partnership with leading global over-the-top (OTT) player Viber to offer subscribers a richer messaging experience. Under Bithos’ leadership, Globe also forged a world-first collaboration with Facebook to offer its prepaid and postpaid subscribers free access to the social networking site alongside customer service innovations that address fear of mobile browsing. Prior to joining Globe in 2010, Bithos spent five years with SingTel Optus in Australia where he was most recently the chief executive officer of Optus’ subsidiary Virgin Mobile Australia. Over his tenure at SingTel Optus, he held executive positions cutting across P&L leadership, operations, strategy and M&A.

DOE allows market intervention in WESM

Economy

Jan 082014

MANILA, Philippines – The Department of Energy (DOE) is allowing market intervention in the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM), the country’s trading floor for electricity, to temper unusual price spikes as what happened in November last year. “In a nutshell, there is now market intervention,” Energy Secretary Carlos Jericho Petilla said when sought for comment on the new circular. Based on Department Circular 2014-01-0001, the Philippine Electricity Market Corp. (PEMC), the WESM operator, has the option to intervene in the market by setting an administered price gauged on the average price in the last 30 days prior to the day of intervention. It said PEMC may intervene when there is a supply emergency “where electricity supply capacity shortfall, is measured at four percent or below the total demand.” “Provided further that the four percent trigger shall continue to be applied until the DOE determines, through the National Transmission Corp., the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines and the Grid Management Committee, that a new trigger is applicable,” Petilla said in the circular. He stressed that market intervention is merely an option that may or may not be exercised by PEMC as market operator. Business ( Article MRec ), pagematch: 1, sectionmatch: 1 “[I]n light of recent events, the DOE saw the need to provide for an interim measure for the market operator and/or system operator’s declaration of market intervention in order to ensure utmost consumer protection specially in times of critical situation of the supply of electricity power that triggers Read More …

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