Economy – Page 387

DTI sees more biz missions from Taiwan

Economy

Apr 232014

MANILA, Philippines – More inbound business missions from Taiwan to the Philippines are expected as the government actively promotes the country as a gateway or hub for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) region, the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) said. Trade undersecretary Ponciano Manalo Jr. said yesterday more business missions from Taiwan are expected in the country following his visit there late last month to encourage firms to explore trade and investment opportunities. “With its strong economic performance, flourishing business opportunities, and proximity, the Philippines is in a firm position to encourage Taiwan in closely considering our country as their gateway or hub for the ASEAN market,” he said. During the investment seminar held in Taiwan attended by about 100 participants engaged in the electronics industry, particularly in photonics light emitting diode (LED) applications, imaging devices and photovoltaic and green technology, Manalo cited the advantages of pouring in funds here such as the country’s strategic business location to the ASEAN market, rich talent pool, first-class lifestyle, and attractive investment incentives. Manalo met with Taiwanese companies engaged in the global electronics supply chain which have expressed keen interest in investing in the Philippines. He said other Taiwanese firms were also interested in opportunities in software park development, electric vehicle production, and aircraft maintenance, repair and overhaul services. Business ( Article MRec ), pagematch: 1, sectionmatch: 1 Investment opportunities in the Philippines for Taiwan’s firms include LED module packaging assembly, printer and related equipment, automotive manufacturing (including electronic auto Read More …

IFC, Phl to ramp up green buildings project

Economy

Apr 232014

IFC, Phl to ramp up green buildings project

MANILA, Philippines — International Finance Corp., a member of the World Bank Group, is stepping up its work with the Philippine government to expand the development of green buildings. IFC is also conducting technical studies that will be used in drafting laws requiring new buildings to reduce electricity use. These measures will help the country cut the greenhouse-gas emissions of new buildings by 20 percent annually. A forum titled “Green Building Imperative,” hosted today by IFC, the Climate Change Commission – which is chaired by Philippine President Benigno Aquino III – and the Philippine Green Building Initiative, was attended by nearly 100 local government officials. Vice President Jejomar Binay, Senator Loren Legarda, and Climate Change Commissioner Heherson Alvarez were among those who spoke at the forum. The participants shared green building best practices and began discussing preliminary plans to adopt such practices among local governments across the country. “The unabated use of carbon-based fuels has drastically altered our global climate—weather patterns are changing and natural disasters have become stronger, more frequent, and less predictable,” said President Benigno Aquino III in a statement released by Malacañang , adding that green building is one of the most important steps that the country must undertake in adapting to climate change and mitigating climate risk. “It is my hope that this will gain widespread acceptance among developers and major players.” IFC also is helping the Department of Public Works and Highways update the National Building Code that will set minimum green feature requirements for Read More …

DBP, MWSI ink P6-B loan pact

Economy

Apr 222014

MANILA, Philippines – State-owned Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP) and Maynilad Water Services Inc. (MWSI) signed yesterday a P6-billion term loan agreement to partially finance MWSI’s sewerage project. The loan will specifically form part of the financing to be used by MWSI’s Parañaque-Las Piñas Sewerage System. DBP’s loan to MWSI is made possible through a funding provided by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) under its Environmental Development Project (EDP). DBP said the project involves the construction of a sewage treatment plant and sewer collection system. The project, it said, will also adopt a combined sewerage network with sewage interceptors to capture sewage from the drainage of the two cities prior to discharge to the Parañaque River. The project is also part of MWSI’s commitment to establish sewage treatment plants with a total capacity of 435 million liters per day. Business ( Article MRec ), pagematch: 1, sectionmatch: 1 It is expected to serve about 1.8 million people within its concession area. The proposed Parañaque-Las Piñas sewerage facility will initially contribute 77 million liters per day to the total capacity.

Boracay tourism to get even bigger

Economy

Apr 222014

Our biggest tourist destination is about to get even bigger. The new airport in Caticlan, costing P5.3 billion, is set to be completed by yearend 2015 and that means Airbus 320s that used to land in Kalibo will use Caticlan as the gateway airport to Boracay. It is a 25 year Built, Rehabilitate, Operate and Transfer project. The current runway of 30 meters x 950 meters will be extended to 45 meters x 1800 meters to satisfy international standards for aircrafts like the A320. Construction of the runway will be done by end of this year. Also to be constructed is a taxiway. The new airport being constructed by San Miguel in Caticlan will also have a terminal building that can service 12 aircrafts at a time with 12 air bridges. That’s a far cry from the current terminal building that gets crowded with just two or three flights of smaller aircrafts. The new airport will also have the latest navigational system to make it an all weather airport. It will also have night landing facilities, something most of our airports outside our major airports do not have. No more daily flight cancellations due to sunset limitation. That probably means the Kalibo airport that now takes in direct foreign flights from South Korea and other countries will return to its previous status as a typical decrepit provincial airport. Right now, it is an embarrassing gateway to foreign tourists vacationing in Boracay. Kalibo airport is now so congested that many foreign Read More …

DA turns over P7.2-M farm infra projects, eqp’t to Tawi Tawi town

Economy

Apr 222014

DA turns over P7.2-M farm infra projects, eqp’t to Tawi Tawi town

MANILA, Philippines – The Department of Agriculture (DA) has turned over to a municipality in Tawi Tawi P7.2 million worth of farm infrastructure projects and equipment. Turned over recently to Panglima Sugala mayor Regie Sahali-Generale are a one-kilometer farm- to- market road, a new trading station, as well as eight units of cassava graters. The new farm-to-market road connects Barangay Thumbhill to Sitio Siola that covers 250 hectares of growing areas for bananas, cassava, coconut, and rice. The trading post, meanwhile, is in Barangay Batu-Batu where it now serves as the main marketplace in the entire municipality. The eight units of cassava grater and pressers were distributed to various farmer associations (FA). These are: Interior Magsaggao FA and Upper Magsaggao FA in Barangay Magsaggao; Kabbun Jati FA in Barangay Sumangday; Thumbhill FA in Barangay Thumbhill; Batu-Batu FA in Barangay Batu-Batu; Kulape Kasanyangan FA, Kulape Karayawan FA and Kasambuhan FA in Barangay Kulape. The projects are funded under the DA’s Support to Emergency Livelihood Assistance Project (SELAP) program. The local government of Panglima Sugala provided a counterpart fund of around P700,000 for the projects. Business ( Article MRec ), pagematch: 1, sectionmatch: 1 SELAP is a special project of the DA funded by a US loan under United States Public Law 480. The program aims to accelerate rural development in Mindanao. Its components are: rural infrastructure development, livelihood assistance, capability building and program management. “The FMR (farm-to-market road) will allow the farmers to bring their agri-products to the market much faster Read More …

Added business cost

Economy

Apr 222014

As if doing business in the Philippines wasn’t difficult enough. In the 2014 Doing Business survey by the International Finance Corp. (IFC), the Philippines ranked 108th out of 189 economies covered. While this meant that the Philippines improved 30 notches from its rank of 138th in the 2013 edition, the sad fact is that we are still 6th highest in the ASEAN and that there are 107 economies that are better than us in terms of business-friendly regulations. In the top 10 of the list of most business-friendly are Singapore, Hong Kong, New Zealand, the United States, Denmark, Malaysia, South Korea, Georgia, Norway, and the United Kingdom. The survey, of course, does not measure all factors affecting business. It instead simply measures how much red tape private businesses encounter when dealing with government and ranks economies in terms of how easy it is to set up a business. The Philippine mining industry probably does not see how our government can rejoice with the “improved” ranking when all indications point to the fact that the country is becoming a very difficult place to do business in. Business ( Article MRec ), pagematch: 1, sectionmatch: 1 Not only is our mining industry faced with government mining policies that do not promote the growth of the sector, but instead stifle it. It also has to deal with environmental activists and host LGUs which impose oftentimes unreasonable conditions that make it difficult, if not impossible, for mining companies to operate. But there is another Read More …

Wide array of models for test drive starting tomorrow!

Economy

Apr 222014

Wide array of models for test drive starting tomorrow!

Tomorrow, April 24 is the start of a four-day dream world for car enthusiasts, those contemplating on buying a new automobile or those just plain curious to find out and experience the latest automobile models currently available in the market. For all these people all roads lead to the SM Mall of Asia concert grounds for the initial staging of the Caltex Auto Focus Summer Test Drive Festival. Organized by Sunshine Television (STV) primarily to help further perk up the local auto industry, the event earns the distinction of managing to get together in one venue keenly competing automobile importers and manufacturers for the common goal of helping the market know more intimately the present line up models by having them available for public test drive based on the common belief that there’s no better way to sell cars than having buyers test drive the vehicles and fairly give them the opportunity to compare these vehicles before finally deciding on which one to chose. A unique concept of the event is the option given to participating car companies to have their vehicles test driven inside the event venue where a test drive course has been designed and laid out to bring out a vehicle’s attributes pertaining to maneuverability, safety, riding comfort and parking ease. To test a vehicle’s maneuverability, a slalom run is included in the exercise followed by a stretch of simulated humps to bring out the vehicle’s capability to provide riding comfort despite running through an uneven road Read More …

BSP keeps inflation targets

Economy

Apr 212014

MANILA, Philippines – The government has kept its inflation targets for this year until 2016 following an inter-agency meeting, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas said yesterday. In a statement, the central bank said inflation targets have been maintained at three to five percent for this year, and at two to four percent for both 2015 and 2016. “Based on the most recent assessment of current inflation developments, evolving economic and financial trends as well as indicators of the public’s inflation expectations and the BSP’s emerging forecasts, the current (three to five percent) target for 2014 of the government remains appropriate for the Philippine economy,” the central bank said. “The government also decided to maintain the medium-term inflation target of (two to four percent) for 2015 – 2016 as it continues to be consistent with the country’s current inflation dynamics and outlook for the next couple of years and the expected higher potential capacity under a low inflation environment,” the BSP continued. The 2014 inflation target was first announced in 2010, while the 2015 to 2016 targets were announced in 2012. The DBCC itself is made up of the BSP governor, the secretaries of the departments of finance and budget and management, the Socioeconomic Planning secretary, and the executive secretary. Business ( Article MRec ), pagematch: 1, sectionmatch: 1 The inter-agency committee is tasked to set the targets and assumptions of macroeconomic fundamentals including the gross domestic product, foreign-exchange rate, and trade data, among others. The economy grew by a faster-than-expected Read More …

Experts say operating ratio of Batangas port remains low

Economy

Apr 212014

Experts say operating ratio of Batangas port remains low

MANILA, Philippines – An expert commissioned by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) said the operating ratio of the Batangas Container Terminal being considered as alternative to the Port of Manila amid the truck ban imposed by the city government of Manila remained low. In a report, Ryujiro Sasao, external evaluator of IC Net Ltd., said the volume of container cargo to be handled by Batangas Port has fell short of the target volume since the completion of the project in March of 2010. “The operating ratio of the container terminal constructed by this project remains low, falling short of the target volume of container cargo to be handled. For this reason, the project has shown only an extremely limited effect on local employment and the economic growth of local businesses, thus its effectiveness and impact is low,” he said. He also pointed out that the number of container ships servicing the Batangas Port is only one ship a week. “Currently, the number of container ships scheduled for service at Batangas Port sits at only one ship per week,” he added. The review puts into question the supposed capability of the Batangas Port to provide an alternative to the busy port of Manila. Business ( Article MRec ), pagematch: 1, sectionmatch: 1 According to the assessment the start of full-scale operations at Batangas Port was significantly delayed beyond the original plan of March 2002 to December 2007 due to prolonged land acquisition and resettlement. “Although the project cost was within Read More …

Gov’t releases P5.21 B for agri component of Yolanda rehab effort

Economy

Apr 212014

Gov’t releases P5.21 B for agri component of Yolanda rehab effort

MANILA, Philippines – The government has so far released a total of P5.21 billion for the agricultural component of the recovery and reconstruction program for areas devastated by Typhoon Yolanda. The Department of Budget and Management turned over P1.05 billion to the Department of Agriculture to support various initiatives under the Reconstruction Assistance on Yolanda (RAY) program. The money will allow the DA to implement clearing and desilting operations in Yolanda-stricken regions, as well as provide farm tools, seeds, tractors, fertilizers, and farm machinery fuel subsidies to farmers in Regions IV-B (MIMAROPA), V (Bicol Region), VI (Western Visayas), VII (Central Visayas), and IX (Zamboanga Peninsula). “Although it’s been six months since Yolanda hit the country, several communities in the Visayas and Mindanao are still in the process of recovering from the devastation. Farmers were especially hard-hit, as the super typhoon laid waste to vast swaths of agricultural land,” DBM Secretary Florencio “Butch” Abad said. According to the DA, damages to the agriculture sector reached P31.1 billion as of March 2014. This includes production losses of P27.07 billion in crops, fisheries, and livestock, as well as infrastructure losses (including irrigation systems and facilities) of P4.06 billion. “We know that there is much work to be done, however, in restoring normalcy and economic stability in agricultural communities destroyed by Yolanda. Business ( Article MRec ), pagematch: 1, sectionmatch: 1 Through RAY (Reconstruction Assistance on Yolanda) the administration can mobilize the necessary post-disaster aid to affected regions to complement our disaster preparation initiatives,” Read More …

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