Maniolas

President Rodrigo Duterte is on his way to Peru for the 2016 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Leaders’ Summit. Facebook/Presidential Communications Office   President Rodrigo Duterte is on his way to Peru for the 2016 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Leaders’ Summit. On Thursday, the president said that he would spend his time in Peru promoting the Philippine economy and his 10-point socio-economic agenda, saying “the Philippines is open for business.” The president’s continued support for greater cross-border economic connections is particularly welcome, given the anti-trade attitudes that are on the rise in other parts of the world—especially the United States. This year’s theme of “Quality Growth and Human Development” builds on the priorities laid out by the Philippine government during its hosting last year. Although APEC was originally established to promote trade liberalization in the Asia-Pacific region, it has since prioritized agendas that highlight the importance of investing in human capital to build sustainable and inclusive economies. In recent years, the uneven distribution of growth has alienated the majority, leading to the rise of populist leaders around the globe.  Despite an average economic growth of 6.1 percent over the last six years, the past administration failed to reach their target poverty incidence of no more than 18 to 20 percent. Pervasive inequality helped usher in the rise of Duterte, who pledges to lift millions of Filipinos from poverty. As world leaders are set to convene in Lima, we must reflect on the promise of growth, the future of trade, and APEC’s role in ensuring more Read More …

MANILA, Philippines – The Social Security System (SSS) now wants to have a first say on financing part of public private partnership (PPP) projects to be bid out by the government.  “We plan to make it compulsory for PPP proponents to reserve for SSS the right of first refusal to 25 percent equity participation,” SSS chair Amado Valdez said in a statement yesterday. This, in effect, will require the government to first seek SSS help in funding part of infrastructure projects before going elsewhere. This, in turn, will help finance planned pension increases, particularly the P2,000 adjustment pending before Congress. The PPP Center declined to comment. Sought for details, SSS assistant vice-president Maria Luisa Sebastian said the proposal would be contained in a bill to amend the pension fund’s charter, which is yet to be crafted. “Those are still ideas being floated by the new chair,” Sebastian said in a phone interview. Business ( Article MRec ), pagematch: 1, sectionmatch: 1 Earlier, Valdez said he wanted all future toll roads to be partly constructed using SSS funds since fees collected from their operations would represent consistent flow of funds for the agency. From January to September, 39 percent or P180.46 billion of SSS investment portfolio was invested in government securities. Around 24 percent or P111.22 billion was invested in equities, 18 percent (P85.93 billion) in member loans, eight percent (P38.66 billion) in corporate notes, seven percent (P33.82 billion) in bank deposits and four percent (P20.05 billion) in property. That represented Read More …

MANILA, Philippines – The Tourism Congress of the Philippines (TCP) will bring the first ever tourism career fair to Visayas and Mindanao this November. TCP executive vice president Aileen Clemente said job opportunities in the tourism industry are already extending outside Metro Manila as the bulk of tourism development projects are moving to the southern part of the country.                                                                Clemente said some hotel chains and resorts have already entered the market, or are expanding their operations in the country to take advantage of the growing domestic and foreign arrivals in the Philippines. “The country has a growing middle class. And beyond our top markets abroad, the country is welcoming tourists from more European countries, the Middle East and India,” she said. “This is the best time for Filipinos to become part of the country’s tourism industry.  Instead of going abroad, we are seeing competitive career opportunities locally,” she added. With this, the TCP will bring about 30 tourism-related companies to participate in the Visayas and Mindanao leg of the Tourism Career and Hospitality Fair. Business ( Article MRec ), pagematch: 1, sectionmatch: 1 The jobs fair, which will take place at the Cebu Trade Hall on Nov. 22 and at the SMX Convention Center Davao on Nov. 28, will bring together tourism companies, employment agencies, and schools looking for potential Read More …

MANILA, Philippines – The Philippines’ goal of becoming a rice-exporting country by the end of the Duterte administration seems like a long shot, an official of the  Department of Agriculture (DA) said. Leo Cañeda, director of the Office of the Undersecretary for Operations at DA, said the possibility of the Philippines exporting rice appears to be out of the radar as of the moment. “Not that we are talking about it already. It’s enough that we work hard to hit our rice self-sufficiency target first by 2019,” Cañeda told The STAR on the sidelines of a forum organized by the Philippine Agricultural Journalists Inc. Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel Piñol has made public its goal of becoming a rice-exporting country, saying rice could be a potential export commodity that could allow the country to compete in the global market. “That is if we lower cost of production and increase productivity to make us competitive in the rice market,” he said. Cañeda emphasized that the DA is taking one step at a time and is focused on the goal of increasing the sector’s efficiency. Business ( Article MRec ), pagematch: 1, sectionmatch: 1 “The goal is how we can increase our efficiency in the entire value chain so that the Philippine rice industry can be competitive and that we can support our own local needs,” he said. “It (exporting) hasn’t figured yet in our discussions but if we get there why not? Whatever dual effects it will have, like being able to export, Read More …