4 THE ECONOMY EDGEDAVAO
VOL. 7 ISSUE 103 • THURSDAY, AUGUST 7, 2014
‘Diskwento Caravan’ benefits 8,300 buyers in Davao del Sur By vANNAH S. ANg
T
vsa@edgedavao.net
HE Department of Trade and Industry region 11’s (DTI 11) “Presyo Diskwento Caravan” has benefited a total of 8,300 consumers in the region and generated total sales worth P1,997,805 within the year. The latest Presyo Diskwento Caravan was conducted in Hagonoy, a third class municipality located in Digos City from July 4 to 5. It was participated by three firms and generated total sales worth P430,305 from 3,000 buyers. According to Eulogio C. orevillo, DTI-Davao del Sur officer-in-Charge, the conduct of the “Presyo Diskwento Caravans” in the province is now becoming a solution to address the clamor of various local government units (LGUs). “Well, we have targets of our own but oftentimes, we conduct Presyo Diskwento Caravans in certain areas because the LGUs requested for it. There are also instances
wherein we have already conducted a Presyo Diskwento Caravan in the said municipality but we go back and conduct another round again because of their request,” he said. Jenny Mendoza, DTI 11 officer, said that four Presyo Diskwento Caravans have already been conducted in Davao del Sur as of July this year. The first caravan was conducted last May in Bato, Sta. Cruz with three participating suppliers and generated total sales worth P262,500 from 1,200 buyers. The second caravan was conducted last June 12 to 13 in Kiblawan with six participating firms and generated total sales worth P576,500 from 1,600 buyers. The third caravan was conducted last June 17-18, once again in Kiblawan, with just a single participating firm and generated total sales worth P728,500 from 2,500 buyers. Mendoza said that the Presyo Diskwento Car-
avan is an initiative that aims to bring relief to consumers from the rising prices of goods. This is in partnership with other government agencies and
the private sector. “At least 10 percent discount is given to the buyers for their purchase of basic necessities and prime commodities at the
HE regional Development Council (rDC)-XI brought together the stakeholders of the energy sector to tackle issues and concerns relative to the attainment of reliable stable power in the Davao region. rDC-XI Chair Governor rodolfo del rosario said the activity sought the firm commitments of the local chief executives, relevant national government agencies and private
renewable energy (rE) developers for the immediate realization of potential rE projects, especially the recently-awarded DoE projects in region XI. “The development of potential renewable energy sources in Davao region is one of the Council’s priority agenda,” he stressed. He said that with the impending power shortage in 2015, there is a need to identify and develop more commer-
cially-viable rE sources, in order to avert energy shortfall and effectively support the ever-increasing demand of residential, commercial and industrial consumers. He added the quest for a sustainable and reliable electricity is part of the key strategic and sustainable infrastructure component of the Updated regional Development Plan (rDP), 2014-2016. Participants of the forum agreed to adopt some
concrete strategies in order to fast track the implementation of awarded rE projects. These include, among others, the streamlining of procedures and business processes, including the adoption of a fast lane for processing applications and uniform incentives scheme for rE development in all the LGUs. The stakeholders particularly pushed for the immediate implementa-
of the year that reached P125.59 million or P29.41 million higher than its target of P155 million for the entire year. He said the city’s collection efficiency for general income account derived from permits and licenses is presently at 77 percent, with collections reaching P20.3 million as against its target of P25.3 million. “The fiscal health of our city has never been very healthy as it is today,” he said in his first state-of-thecity address on Tuesday. rivera said a big chunk of the city’s Internal revenue Allotment share, which stands at around P958 million for this year, mainly comes from the area’s flagship tuna industry. Dubbed the country’s
“tuna capital,” the city currently hosts six of the countries tuna canneries and various complementary industries. But in the last 10 years, after the “phenomenal rise” of the city’s tuna industry, he said new investment opportunities were opened up in the area. “Since I took office, increased business activities in the city have been noticeable,” said rivera, who won his first term as city mayor in the May 2013 midterm elections. He said the local government specifically recorded around P871 million worth of new investments in the area during the first half of the year. Such figure, which was
derived from new business registrations from January to June this year, was P300 million higher when compared to last year’s investment records during the period of P535.5 million, he said. rivera said the gross sales receipts of business renewals in the city also reached P42.57 billion for essentials and P28.93 billion for non-essentials. Both figures are improvements of the gross sales receipts of P41.60 billion and P25.8 billion for essentials and non-essentials, respectively, during the first half of 2013. “Simply put, business has never been this good in General Santos City,” he added. (MindaNews)
Gov. Rodolfo del Rosario, 2nd left, Vice Gov. Victorio Suaybaguio, Jr. and PAGASA Acting Administrator Dr. Vicente Malano, right, unveil the perspective of the P20-million Tagum-Libuganon River Basin Flood Forecasting
and Warning Center at the Capitol, Mankilam, Tagum City. Ondoy Laguitao/ DavNor PIO caravan’s venue,” she said. These basic necessities include canned sardines, processed milk, coffee, detergent or laundry soap, and rice. Prime
commodities, on the other hand, include processed and canned meat, instant noodles, and toiletries like shampoo and bath soap.
MALL businesses are “soft targets” of cybercriminals since they lack focus on information technology (IT) strategy, according to secure content and threat management solutions developer Kaspersky Lab. Based on the Kaspersky Lab’s 2014 IT Security risks summary report, very small businesses (VSBs) with fewer than 25 employees are the least likely to view "IT Strategy" as a top strategic concern. Among all the VSBs worldwide, only 19 percent reported IT Strategy as one of their top-two strategic concerns, compared to 30 percent of businesses with more than 100 employees, and 35 percent of enterprises with 5,000 employees or more. Kaspersky Lab believes that VSBs, which are often startups struggling to establish themselves, most often don’t have the money or IT expertise to properly implement vital IT components like security software. “Every successful business needs an efficient IT strategy. Unfortunately, VSBs are not capable to correctly implement IT elements such as security software because they may lack the expertise or financial resources,” said
Jimmy Fong, Channel Sales Director of Kaspersky Lab Southeast Asia. Citing estimates by the International Data Corporation, Kaspersky Lab also revealed that 80 million businesses worldwide with fewer than 10 employees believe that they are too small to be targeted by cybercriminals. However, the reality is that many VSBs adopt the “security by obscurity” mentality, believing that they are too small to be targeted by cybercriminals and don’t have any data that cybercriminals would want. According to the Verizon’s 2013 Data Breach Investigations report, 193 of the 621 breaches analyzed – more than 30 percent – occurred at companies with 100 or fewer employees. Kaspersky Lab warns that cybercriminals will also need less effort to successfully attack numerous VSBs instead of a single larger business. And unlike larger enterprises with sufficient funds to recover from a cyberattack, small businesses may be driven to bankruptcy due to costs of lost customer data, significant time spent offline, and associated clean-up expenses.
RDC-XI gathers stakeholders to address power gap Kaspersky: PH businesses must invest in cybersecurity T S FRDC-XI, 10
GenSan Jan-Jun tax collection P205M
T
HE city government has collected a total of P205.94 million in local taxes during the first half of the year, surpassing last year’s records by 15 percent. City Mayor ronnel rivera said such figure is around P30 million more than the city’s total collections from business, real property and other taxes from January to June last year that only reached P175.094 million. He said it also represents 82 percent of the city government’s local tax collection target for this year of around P251 million. The mayor said business taxes made up the bulk of their collections during the first six months