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BusinessMirror A broader look at today’s business Saturday 18, 2014 No. 40 Vol. 10 No. 244 Wednesday, June Vol. 10,102015
www.businessmirror.com.ph
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P. | | 7 DAYS A WEEK
GOV’T SAYS HIGHEST UNEMPLOYMENT RATE RECORDED IN PHL’S CAPITAL REGION IN APRIL
Jobless rate worsens in NCR T
HE country’s capital region, which hosts the biggest business districts, recorded the most number of unemployed Filipinos in April, according to the latest data from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA). In the April Labor Force Survey (LFS), PSA figures showed that the National Capital Region (NCR) recorded an unemployment rate of 9.3 percent, higher than the national figure of 6.4 percent. “Among the regions, the NCR, Ilocos region, Central Luzon and Calabarzon had unemployment rates higher than the national figure,” the PSA said. For the entire Philippines, the PSA said unemployment rate eased to 6.4 percent in April, from 7
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YALA Land Inc. (ALI) on Tuesday vowed to complete the initial development work, or phase one, of its P80-billion Arca South project in Taguig City, which had been accelerated as a result of high demand. Company officials said they have already spent about half of the budget for the development of the project in the former Food Terminal Inc. complex. Phase-one development includes roadwork, utilities and other infrastructure, which are now 70percent complete. The entire project was seen completed by the end of the year, said Stephen Comia, the company’s project development
WANTED: FRESH IDEAS FOR EL NIÑO MITIGATION
percent recorded in the same period last year. “This translates to 495,000 more employed Filipinos and reduced the total number of unemployed to 2.7 million,” Economic Planning Secretary Arsenio M. Balisacan said in a statement. Among the unemployed persons in April 2015, 63.1 percent were males. Of the total unemployed, the age group 15 to 24 comprised 50.4 percent, while the age group 25 to 34, 30.1 percent. C A
Ayala Land fast-tracks construction of offices in Arca South project B VG C
SPECIAL REPORT
manager of its strategic land-bank management group. “First movers to Arca South have a distinct advantage. Their foresight has led them to an area that will be driving unprecedented growth in the south. Land values appreciated by 39 percent in less than a year,” he said. He added, however, that realestate prices in Arca South are at a 30-percent discount compared with prices at Bonifacio Global City, which is a separate development project of ALI. Development at Arca South was conceptualized at 50-50 commercial and residential mix. Commercial lots, averaging 2,500 square meters, have been sold out across the estate.
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THE Pantabangan Lake, the reservoir of the Pantabangan Dam in Nueva Ecija that is considered one of the largest in Southeast Asia, is approaching critical level at 178.94 meters, or less than 2 meters from the critical level of 177 meters above sea level. NONIE REYES
B A S. D | Correspondent M G P
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Conclusion
NSURING water supply, according to experts, is critical to help farmers cope with the ill effects of El Niño. Experts, such as Dr. Roehlano Briones of the Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS), pushed for reforms in the water sector. In fairness to the government, Briones said, it has a number of El Niño mitigation measures in place. These include the “quick turnaround” scheme, which calls on rice farmers to plant a third crop, as well as cloudseeding operations. But the most crucial, experts said, is finding ways on how to deal with water availability considering the decline in resources. “Problems [like El Niño] can recur and, in the long run, we will be facing greater demand
for water, not less,” Briones said. “But then, we also know that water-resource availability is not increasing but probably declining because of the state of our watersheds. Also, the availability of water will be less, rather than more stable, in the years to come because of climate change,” he added. The government’s priority, Briones said, is to ensure the efficiency of the country’s irrigation system. A PIDS study earlier noted that the actual irrigated areas for most irrigation systems in the country had all been consistently below the target. The study, titled “Appraisal of Methodology in Estimating Irrigable Areas and Process of Evaluating Feasibility of National Irrigation Administration Projects,” said this has been due mainly to “overestimation” of irrigable areas by not fully accounting for built-up areas or urbanization, flooded areas during the wet season and elevated areas that cannot be
reached by gravity irrigation systems. Briones added that it also does not help that the country’s watersheds are already denuded. Figures from the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization showed that the country’s forest cover declined to around 20 percent in 2007, from 90 percent in 1934. Rolando Dy, executive director of the University of Asia and the Pacific’s Center for Food and Agribusiness, said consumers must also be encouraged to eat farm products that require less water to produce. “We Filipinos should also partly change our consumption habits. Demand for water will only continue to rise if we continue to eat rice, which is water-intensive,” Dy said. He said Filipino consumers may consider eating banana and camote, which do not require a lot of water to grow. C A
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PESO EXCHANGE RATES n US 45.1030
n JAPAN 0.3624 n UK 69.2241 n HK 5.8187 n CHINA 7.2681 n SINGAPORE 33.3528 n AUSTRALIA 34.4903 n EU 50.9168 n SAUDI ARABIA 12.0275 Source: BSP (9 June 2015)