Archive for May 2008
Rising prices, US slowdown pull down RP growth
By Jesus F.Llanto
Researcher, Newsbreak
May 29, 2008-Rising fuel and food prices, a slowdown in the United States economy and the negative effects of a stronger peso slowed down the growth of Philippine economy in the first quarter to 5.2 percent from last year’s 7 percent, officials announced Thursday.
They said the figure is within the government’s expected growth range of 5.2-6.2 percent in Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for the first quarter.
“The external sector continues to struggle in an environment characterized by high oil prices and weak global demand,” Economic Planning Secretary Augusto Santos said Thursday.
The National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) lowered yesterday the official economic growth target for 2008 from 6.3 to 7 percent to between 5.7-6.5 percent.
Gross National Product (GNP), meanwhile, expanded by 7.3 percent as a result of the 30.3 percent increase in the country’s net factor income from abroad (NFIA), 89 percent of which are remittances from overseas Filipino workers.
Service sector
Of all the sectors, the services sector remained the strongest and registered a 6.9 percent growth. The figure is lower than last year’s 8.4 percent growth and contributed to 3.3 percentage points in the GDP. Santos said the “healthy” growth was driven by real estate, finance and trade.
“The real estate sub-sector continues to be buoyed by demand for office space as well as residential spaces from OFWs,” Santos said.
Growth in the agriculture sector, which contributed 0.6 percentage points in the GDP, slowed down to 3 percent from last year’s 4 percent.
Santos said the higher output of palay, corn, banana, coconut and poultry and the increasing demand in agricultural-based exports drove the growth in this sector. –with reports from Reuters and ABS-CBN News. (abs-cbnNews.com/Newsbreak)
‘Too much autonomy’ makes RP cities less business friendly
By Jesus F. Llanto
Researcher, Newsbreak
May 27, 2008–Major cities in the Philippines generally take longer to issue business-related permits and licenses compared to most cities in the world, thus constraining their growth and competitiveness, a recent study shows.
Twenty-one cities in the country are able to authorize numerous and varying procedures in starting businesses in their jurisdictions because, according to a private sector representative, they were given “too much autonomy” under the Local Government Code of 1991.
A representative to the government-created National Competitiveness Council suggested then that some of the taxation powers of local government units (LGUs) be reverted to the national government.
In a study conducted by the International Finance Corp. (IFC) and the World Bank on the ease of doing business in cities worldwide, the Philippines ranked 133rd out of 178 countries.
‘Redundant, outdated’
Dealing with a Philippine city to start a business takes an average of 18 procedures and 35 days and costs 27 percent of the income per capita, according to the study. The number of procedures is only two less than the figure for Equatorial Guinea, the country with most procedures to start a business.
“Cities should cut down on unnecessary, redundant, and outdated procedures, and they should take a look at all the procedures that their customers have to go through,” said Vincent Lazatin, executive director of the Transparency and Accountability Network, during the presentation Monday of the Doing Business in the Philippines 2008 study at Intercontinental Hotel in Makati City. (abs-cbnNews.com/Newsbreak)
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LGUs urged to cut red tape
Photo Credit: www.en.wikipilipinas.org
BPO experts: Pinoys’ ‘improved’ English skills need more improvement
By Jesus F. Llanto
May 18,2008-Filipino adults may rate themselves better speakers of the English language, as what a recent survey showed, but business process outsourcing (BPO) experts think further improvement is needed in their proficiency if the Philippines is to compete for investments and jobs with other outsourcing havens in Asia.
The Philippines is currently a top destination for outsourcing firms for being an English-speaking country, but China, Vietnam, and Latin American countries are fast catching up by strengthening the English proficiency of their work force.
“We should not be complacent so we can still maintain our advantage,” Jamea Garcia, executive director for talent of the Business Process Association of the Philippines (BPAP), told Newsbreak.
The Social Weather Stations presented Thursday the results of an April 2008 survey on self-assessed proficiency in the English language of the Filipinos, which was commissioned by the Promoting English Proficiency Project of the American Chamber of Commerce and the Makati Business Club (MBC.) –with research by Fharhana Abdurahim (abs-cbnNews.com/Newsbreak)
New town created in Basilan after 30-year lobby
May 16, 2008-A new municipality has been created in the province of Basilan, cementing the reputation of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) as the region that most frequently fragment existing local government units (LGU), usually despite their economic non-viability.
A regional lawmaker defended the creation of numerous LGUs, saying it helps prevent clan wars because political families are given their respective turfs, but made guarantees that no more LGUs will be created in the coming years, at least in Basilan.
The town of Tabuan-Lasa was carved out of Sumisip, a third-class municipality. Tabuan-Lasa is composed of 12 barangays—Babag, Balanting, Boloh-Boloh, Bukut-Umus, Kaumpurnah, Lanawan, Pisak-pisak, Saluping, Suligan, Sulloh, Tambulig Buton, and Tong-Umos.
It was created through Muslim Mindanao Act No. (MMA) 187, which was ratified in a plebiscite last March 29. Its creation brings the number of municipalities in Basilan to 11 and reduces the number of barangays in Sumisip, its mother municipality, from 41 to 29.
Exec urges improved education to meet BPO manpower demand
By Jesus Llanto
May 7, 2008–The Philippines should focus on implementing policies that will develop its education system and curriculum to meet the demand for workers of the business process outsourcing industry, a high-ranking official of BPO firm Sutherland said.
Dilip Vellodi, chair and chief executive officer of Sutherland Global Services, said policies on curriculum and education should be applied so the Philippines can maintain its position as one of the top outsourcing destinations.
Vellodi said the country must have a “strategic outlook” over the next five to 10 years and must continue to have a “highly educated talent (abs-cbnNews.com/Newsbreak)
Evacuees returning to ‘peaceful, progressive’ Muslim Mindanao
By Jesus Llanto
Researcher, Newsbreak
April 29, 2008- The Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) registered the highest population growth rate among the country’s 17 regions, according to the latest census, and the government attributes this to evacuees who are returning because of “better economic opportunities and [a] relatively peaceful situation.”
Results of the 2007 National Census showed that the ARMM registered the highest annual growth rate of 5.46 percent among the regions. This is more than two times the national annual growth rate of 2.04 percent.
Tomas Osias, executive director of the Commission on Population (POPCOM), said that the high annual population growth rate in ARMM pushed the national growth rate to 2.04 percent.
“If ARMM’s growth is not that high, the national annual population growth rate could have reached 1. 9 percent only,” Osias told Newsbreak.
Population in the ARMM increased by 1.3 million during the last seven years—from 2.803 million in May 2000 to 4.12 million in August 1, 2007. ARMM is composed of six provinces: Maguindanao, Lanao del Sur, Sulu, Tawi-Tawi, Shariff Kabunsuan, and Basilan (excluding Isabela City) and Marawi City. It has been a hotbed of Muslim secessionist movements.
Most governors still from political clans, but with varied trainings
By Jesus Llanto
Newsbreak, Researcher
April 22, 2008-A big majority of current provincial governors are scions of political families, according to a survey conducted by Newsbreak, representing little diversion from the political profiles of past batches of governors.
Newsbreak’s survey, however, showed an encouraging trend of these political scions having diverse professional backgrounds compared to the from-college-to-politics path that many members of political dynasties had been traditionally known to take.
