PHL remittances hit US$25.1 billion in 2013

 Entertainment
Feb 182014
 
PHL remittances hit US$25.1 billion in 2013

An employee counts U.S. dollar bills before changing it to Philippine Pesos inside a money changer in Manila September 19, 2013. The Philippine central bank said remittances from overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) have allowed households to save money, boosting the country’s savings rate.(MNS Photo) MANILA (Mabuhay) – Remittances from overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) reached US$25.1 billion last year, 7.6 per cent higher than the previous year. The Philippine central bank said Monday remittances in December amounted to US$2.4 billion, up 12.5 per cent compared to December 2012, Xinhua news agency reported. “Remittances in December marks the ninth consecutive month in 2013 that personal remittances breached the US$2 billion level,” the bank said in a statement. Cash remittances channeled through banks grew by 6.4 per cent on year to US$22.8 billion last year, exceeding the central bank’s projection of a 5-per cent hike for the year. Major sources of cash remittances last year were the US, Saudi Arabia, UK, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Singapore, Canada, and Japan. The central bank said the robust growth of remittances last year was due to the strong demand for skilled Filipino manpower abroad particularly in the Middle East. Preliminary data from the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration showed there were 1.8 million OFWs last year. Cash remittances accounted for 8.4 per cent of Philippine gross domestic product (GDP) in 2013.(MNS)

US warship docks at Manila port for five-day goodwill visit

 News
Feb 082014
 
US warship docks at Manila port for five-day goodwill visit

USS Pinckney docks at Manila harbor . Destroyer USS Pinckney docks at Manila South Harbor on Saturday February 8, 2014, for a routine port call and a five-day goodwill visit to highlight strong ties between the US and the Philippines. Danny Pata The USS Pinckney, an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer docked at the South Habor in Manila for a routine port call according to a report from GMA’s Balitanghali program on Saturday. Commanding officer Frank Okata said this is the first time the warship visited the Philippines and the South East Asian region. Its crew members will be staying for a five-day goodwill visit which Okata said will give the US Navy crew a chance to interact with Filipinos and visit Metro Manila. Also he said their crew members meticulously prepared for their visit to the country to avoid a repeat of an incident last year when the USS Guardian ran aground at the Tubbataha Reef, a World Heritage Site. Among USS Pinckney’s crew members is Filipino-American US Navy seal Geraldine Igualdo who originally hails from Benguet province, the report said. According to Igualdo, there were a dozen Pinckney sailors of Filipino descent. The USS Pinckney is home-ported at San Diego, California, and traveled a month to reach the Philippines. — Andrei Medina /LBG, GMA News

DTI to set up assistance centers in areas hit by Yolanda

 Economy
Feb 012014
 
DTI to set up assistance centers in areas hit by Yolanda

MANILA, Philippines – The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) is planning to put up business assistance centers and shared service facilities (SSF) in areas hit by Super Typhoon Yolanda. “Right now, what we are looking at for Yolanda affected areas is to set up business assistance centers. We are talking with mayors to find out where MSMEs (micro, small and medium enterprises) can go to, to ask for assistance so they can get back on their feet,” Trade Undersecretary Zenaida Maglaya told reporters. Aside from having business help desks in the areas damaged by the typhoon, she said the DTI likewise intends to provide SSFs for the use of MSMEs. “We will provide for SSFs for coco lumber and hollow block making,” she said. The SSF involves the setting up of common service facilities or production centers for certain processes to give MSMEs access to better technology and more sophisticated equipment. The program is being undertaken to help MSMEs become competitive and tap a wider market. Business ( Article MRec ), pagematch: 1, sectionmatch: 1 Maglaya said the department is studying what other support can be provided to help businesses in the area. “We are really looking at how we can help MSMEs recover from the typhoon,” she added. To encourage companies to set-up operations in the areas damaged by the typhoon, Trade Secretary Gregory Domingo said earlier the government is looking at crafting a new bill that will give special treatment or duty-free entry for goods such as Read More …

Tesla cars to have same base price in China as US

 Entertainment
Jan 252014
 
Tesla cars to have same base price in China as US

The Tesla Model SElectric carmaker Tesla Motors said its Model S flagship vehicle will have the same pre-tax price in China as in the US.©Tesla (SHANGHAI-AFP) – Electric carmaker Tesla Motors said its flagship vehicle will have the same pre-tax price in China as in the US, after Chinese media criticised foreign companies for charging higher prices in the country. The upstart US manufacturer’s Model S battery-powered car sells for $81,070 in the US and the company will receive the same sum for it in China, the world’s biggest auto market. Nonetheless the sticker price for the premium car will start from 734,000 yuan ($121,370), with the difference accounted for by $36,700 in taxes imposed by the Chinese government and shipping costs of $3,600, it said. Tesla’s openness over its pricing, which included an item-by-item breakdown of how it was reached, follows official moves and campaigns by state-run media against foreign companies for high prices in industries ranging from infant formula to pharmaceutical products. Last year, state broadcaster CCTV blasted Tata Motors’ Land Rover and Volkswagen’s Audi over higher prices in China than elsewhere. Tesla said the Chinese market could have absorbed a higher price for its cars and attacked rivals for charging more. “The price of a Model S in China is the same as the price of a Model S in the US, adding only unavoidable taxes, customs duties and transportation costs,” Tesla said in the statement. “If we were to follow standard industry practice, we could get Read More …

US Embassy closed January 20 for Martin Luther King Jr. Day

 News
Jan 162014
 
US Embassy closed January 20 for Martin Luther King Jr. Day

By Matikas SantosINQUIRER.net 11:29 am | Friday, January 17th, 2014 US Embassy in Manila, Philippines. AP FILE PHOTO MANILA, Philippines – The United States (US) Embassy announced Friday that it will be closed on January 20 for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day, an official American holiday. “The Embassy of the United States in Manila and its affiliated offices will be closed to the public on Monday, January 20, in observance of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day,” it said in a statement. “The Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (1929-1968), who is remembered in the United States on the third Monday of January each year, is perhaps best known as America’s chief spokesman for nonviolent activism as a result of his leadership role in the U.S. civil rights movement,” the Embassy said. King was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964 for his role in fighting racial inequality in the US through nonviolent means. He is most known for his speech “I Have a Dream” which he delivered before thousands of American demonstrators at the Lincoln Memorial in 1963. One of the most famous lines of his speech went: “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.” “In 1983, President Ronald Reagan signed legislation into law making King’s birthday a federal holiday,” the Embassy said. King was born January 15, 1929. “In Read More …

OFWs join ‘Walk 4 Freedom’ in US

 News
Jan 122014
 
OFWs join ‘Walk 4 Freedom’ in US

LA rally exposes “modern day slaves” in US PHOTO by Benny Uy LOS ANGELES – Former caregiver Angela Guanzon, 36, recalled her two-year nightmare at an elderly care facility in Long Beach, California, where she worked in slave-like conditions. “I worked 18 hours a day, with very little pay, and slept on the floor,” said Guanzon, one of the Filipino victims of labor trafficking who joined the two-mile “Walk 4 Freedom” in Los Angeles yesterday (Sunday in Manila). “I was threatened when I complained and when I tried to escape.” Holding a placard that said, “Human Trafficking: Don’t Let It Happen to You,” Guanzon urged other victims to come out of the shadows and get help. “Many of the victims, especially my fellow Filipinos, are ashamed or afraid to come out and tell their story,” said the Bacolod native, who was rescued by the FBI in 2008. She is now a survivor-organizer for the Coalition to Abolish Slavery and Trafficking (CAST), a nonprofit organization that provided Guanzon with shelter and legal assistance. Angela Guanzon, a victim of unscrupulous labor recruiters PHOTO by Benny Uy Guanzon was one of about 40 Filipino “modern day slaves” helped by CAST in the Greater Los Angeles Area alone. Most of them were victims of unscrupulous labor recruiters “who prey on those who seek a better life in the US,” CAST Executive Director Kay Buck told the Inquirer. “Not only do they end up being enslaved but also in debt bondage,” she said. “This human Read More …

PH seeks break for exports from ‘Yolanda’-hit areas

 News
Jan 102014
 
PH seeks break for exports from ‘Yolanda’-hit areas

Philippine Ambassador to the United States Jose Cuisia Jr. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO MANILA, Philippines—The Philippines is seeking duty-free access into the United States of export products from “Yolanda”-hit areas to help drive the local economy as devastated provinces began recovery and rehabilitation efforts. Philippine Ambassador to the United States Jose Cuisia Jr. made the remarks at a recent conference at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington DC, citing the arrangement that the United States had forged with Haiti to bolster the latter’s economy following the devastating 2010 earthquake. “Similar to what the United States did following the Haiti earthquake, the Philippines is looking at possible trade preference for products from Haiyan-affected areas,” Cuisia told a forum on the role of the US military, government and private sector in helping typhoon recovery in the Philippines. In his audience were the US state department, military and aid officials, representatives from nongovernment organizations and corporate donors. Cuisia said the Philippines is “looking at arrangements” to allow duty-free entry of selected goods from Yolanda-hit areas, particularly Central Visayas, “for a limited period of time.” The ambassador also renewed his call for sustained support from the United States and the international community, noting how the Philippine government’s comprehensive recovery and rehabilitation plan, the Reconstruction Assistance on Yolanda plan, still needs some $8.2 billion (about P360.8 billion). Ally, partner “There is much work to be done, and in the spirit of the alliance and partnership we have shared, we continue to count on your Read More …

TPS petition to Obama far short of 100k signatures goal

 News
Jan 062014
 
TPS petition to Obama far short of 100k signatures goal

LAS VEGAS—An online petition asking the US Department of Homeland Security to grant the Philippines Temporary Protective Status (TPS) is in danger of failing to garner enough signatures by Feb. 1, 2014, the deadline for the petition to be able to have the needed number of signatures. With just 25 days left, the petition posted on the “We the People” website has gathered only 20 signatures, well short of the 100,000 necessary for the White House to respond. The online petition was launched from San Francisco, and the initial signatures came from mostly California-based Filipino-Americans. The petition states: “We respectfully request Pres. Obama to direct the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to designate the Philippines as a country for Temporary Protected Status (TPS), pursuant to 8 U.S.C §1254a, as a way to meaningfully augment current humanitarian efforts of the United States to assist citizens of the Philippines affected by Super Typhoon Haiyan. “Under this section, a country may be designated for TPS if it has been impacted by a natural disaster that has “result[ed] in a substantial, but temporary, disruption of living conditions” such that the country is “unable, temporarily, to handle adequately the return” of its nationals currently in the United States. 8 U.S.C §1254a(b)(1)(B)(i) &(ii).” The “We the People” petition is in addition to direct appeals to the Obama administration for immediate immigration relief for Filipinos in the United States in the wake of the devastation caused by Supertyphoon Haiyan/Yolanda. A TPS designation, among others, will provide a Read More …

Local furniture industry seen to grow 10%

 Economy
Jan 052014
 
Local furniture industry seen to grow 10%

MANILA, Philippines – The local furniture industry is projected to grow by 10 percent this year, largely driven by strong demand expected from both local and export markets. Philippine Exporters Confederation, Inc. trustee for the furniture sector Myrna Bituin said in a statement there is room for the industry to grow as furniture makers can serve the strong demand from the domestic market. “The local market buys billions of pesos (worth) of furniture overseas… Majority of companies that do researches, are open to the market, invest in design and in their people, (and) they have always survived,” she said. Bituin said there are already some local companies which focus on the domestic market, particularly on hotels and resorts. “You save on your freight cost and you are here… serving your country. For those who are mechanized, for those who know about design, they can serve the local market,” she said. She noted that the export market is still growing despite the slowdown in demand from the US. Business ( Article MRec ), pagematch: 1, sectionmatch: 1 She said the Middle East is one of the growing markets for the local wood sector. In Japan, there is strong demand for prefabricated housing components.

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