WHO’LL TAKE OVER HANJIN SHIPYARD?
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UBIC BAY FREEPORT— Negotiations for the acquisition of the assets of bankrupt Hanjin Heavy Industries and Construction Co.-Philippines are set to be completed next month, and a possible new owner of the shipbuilder may be announced before the year ends, a government official said on Thursday. Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) Chairman and Administrator Wilma T. Eisma told reporters that currently, creditors for Hanjin are in discussion with one party for the possible takeover of Hanjin’s remaining assets.
“The creditor banks are the ones leading the negotiation for Hanjin. As we speak, they are now in what they call an exclusivity discussion with a particular entity already,” she said. Eisma added that the “entity” is a group of businesses composed of “more than one foreign company” and “Filipino companies.” They are, she noted, “very interested.” “The hope is that they’ll be able to finish discussions by the end of October and they will be able to announce by December what will be the outcome path for Hanjin to take,” she explained.
Hanjin filed for corporate rehabilitation in January, as it struggled to pay $412 million in loans to five domestic banks. Since then, there were three foreign investors that expressed their interest in acquiring the country’s largest shipyard. The list of interested parties include: Dutch firm Damen Group, French company Naval Group, a consortium of American corporations and two Chinese ship manufacturers. Since 2006, South Korea’s Hanjin invested over $2.3 billion and delivered 123 cargo ships as of the end of 2018.
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DA to ‘flood’ market with cheap rice imports
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By Samuel P. Medenilla
@sam_medenilla
HE Department of Agriculture (DA) announced on Thursday it will be “flooding” the market with the National Food Authority’s (NFA) cheap imported rice to cut down the prices of the staple. In a press conference, Agriculture Secretary William D. Dar disclosed they will be selling 3.6 million bags of rice nationwide. “This will be done up to next month starting today. Tomorrow [Friday] there will be trucks of NFA in most of the markets in Metro Manila delivering parts of the 3.6 million bags of imported
rice,” Dar said. He said the imported NFA rice will be sold at P25 per kilo to retailers and P27 per kilo to consumers. The agriculture chief said another price-reducing measure they will enforce is the raising of the support price from P17 to P19 per kilo for clean and dry palay.
“The P2 increase in the palay price support will translate roughly to an P8,000 additional income per farmer based on current average yield of four bags per hectare,” Dar said.
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HOWEVER, he said they opted to remove the temporary P3.70
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E-VEHICLES COOL, BUT MINING BATTERY METALS COULD POSE A PROBLEM By Cai U. Ordinario
₧8,000 C The estimate of the additional income per farmer—on current average yield of four bags per hectare—as a result of the other price-reducing measure, i.e., raising the support price from P17 to P19 per kilo for clean and dry palay
incentive, given by NFA last year, to farmers. NFA Judy Dansal explained the NFA Council opted to remove the incentive so they could buy rice from more local farmers. “The decision of the council is only for this procurement season, when we start to feel the effects of the new [rice] tariffication law,” Dansal said. See “Rice,” A2
@caiordinario
LIMATE change is fueling the electric vehicle revolution in countries like the Philippines, but the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (Unctad) said firms that will mine battery metals must observe sustainable mining standards. In the 2019 edition of its Commodities and Development Report, titled “Commodity Dependence, Climate Change and the Paris Agreement,” Unctad also said climate change has the potential to cut the productivity of the local aquaculture sector. “The climate crisis poses an existential threat to commoditydependent developing countries and will result in the collapse of some economies if decisive action is not taken now,”Unctad SecretaryGeneral Mukhisa Kituyi said in a statement. “Now more than ever before,
House plenary okays 28 agencies’ budgets; 2020 GAB on track By Jovee Marie N. dela Cruz
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@joveemarie
HE House of Representatives is on track to approve the P4.1-trillion General Appropriations Bill (GAB) after the lower chamber’s plenary approved the budget of 28 agencies for next year. The agencies with plenaryapproved budget are Department of Finance, Legislative-Executive Development Advisory Council, National Economic and Development Authority, Film Development Council of the Philippines, Optical Media Board, and Aurora Pacific Economic Zone and
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Freeport Authority. The budget deliberations of Cagayan Economic Zone Authority, Credit Information Corp., Cultural Center of the Philippines, the Judiciary, Office of the Ombudsman, Philippine Center for Economic Development, Presidential Communications Operations Office, Movie and Television Review and Classification Board, Civil Service Commission, Department of Trade and Industry, Authority of the Freeport Area of Bataan, Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority, Bases Conversion and Development Authority and Department of Justice have also been concluded. See “Budgets,” A2
these countries need to assess their diversification potential and reduce their commodity dependence, which for decades has kept them exposed to volatile markets and climate change,” Kituyi added. In the report, Unctad noted that climate change is fueling an electric vehicle revolution. This is an opportunity for developing countries with vast reserves of battery metals, such as the Philippines. Unctad said electric vehicle sales have increased dramatically to 2 million in 2018, from only a few thousand in 2010. Sales are projected to jump to 10 million units in 2025, 28 million in 2030, and 56 million in 2040. This bodes well for developing countries with “significant reserves of battery metals.” These countries include the Philippines, which is rich in cobalt, along with Cuba, Madagascar and Zambia. See “E-vehicles,” A2
SSS aims to triple online transactions
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JOY OF READING A woman looks for a book at the Manila International Book Fair (MIBF), billed as the biggest, most sought-after and longest running fair in the country with more than 150,000 visitors expected at its five-day run from September 11-15, 2019. The MIBF has become a popular gathering for bookworms of all ages and walks of life. It has also been providing a venue for the exchange of ideas among players in the publishing industry and academe. NONIE REYES
HE state-run Social Security System (SSS) aims to reduce transactions done manually in a bid to decongest its branches and promote the use of its web site among members who wish to avail themselves of its various services. SSS President and Chief Executive Officer Aurora C. Ignacio said that by next year, the pension fund wants to triple its Web transactions to 32.3 million, from the current 10.54 million. Ignacio told reporters in a news briefing on Thursday that the SSS is developing various ways to limit face-to-face transactions. Currently, 75 percent of all SSS transactions are done manually.
US 52.1330 n JAPAN 0.4836 n UK 64.2800 n HK 6.6513 n CHINA 7.3263 n SINGAPORE 37.8022 n AUSTRALIA 35.7685 n EU 57.4036 n SAUDI ARABIA 13.8995
See “SSS,” A2
Source: BSP (12 September 2019 )