BusinessWeek MINDANAO
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Volume IV, No. 40
Market Indicators As of 5:55 pm Dec. 20, 2013 (Friday)
FOREX
PHISIX
US$1 = P44.50
5,835.13 points
7 cents
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87.99 points
X
Briefly Letter of authority THE City Council during its regular session Monday presided over by Vice Mayor Caesar Ian Acenas enacted an Ordinance No. 127042013, authorizing City Mayor Oscar Moreno to enter into and sign a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) with the Department of Trade and Industry. This ordinance seeks to implement DTI’s Philippine Business Registry Project (PBR), under the terms and conditions stipulated in the proposed MOA and subject to the additional condition that the city government’s counterpart will be its existing equipment donated by the USAID for the Business One-Stop Shop (BOSS) project and that the city government will not spend a single centavo for the project. Under the MOA, DTI shall direct and supervise the promotion and development of electronic business registry in the city, among other things. Executive Order No. 587 of 2006, mandates DTI to establish and administer the PBR which will facilitate a seamless transactional environment for business registration and development across the application systems of government agencies such as but not limited to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), DTI, Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR), Social Security System (SSS) and Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth).
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‘Pablo’ downs M’danao banana exports in 2013
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By Mindanews
AVAO City – Typhoon Pablo has significantly reduced Mindanao’s banana exports from January to August this year, data from the Pilipino Banana Growers and Exporters Association, Inc. (PBGEA) showed.
Based on the group’s shipment report, exports by member-companies dropped by 231,743 metric tons (MT) to 882,148 MT from January to August 2013 from 1.114 million MT for the same period last year. PBGEA, which groups 31 companies, ships fresh banana products to Japan, Middle East, Korea, China, Hong Kong, New Zealand, Singapore, Russia, United States, Malaysia, Eg ypt,
Indonesia, Thailand, Mongolia and Canada. For this year, Japan was the largest banana market with 66,464 MT shipped there in May alone, valued at P493 million. Only six and seven MT were shipped to Canada and the United States during the period, respectively. Data from the Plant Quarantine Ser vice also showed that Japan remains exports/PAGE 11
FLATTENED BANANAS. Strong winds brought by Typhoon Pablo last year destroy hundreds of hectares of banana plantations in Compostela town, Compostela Valley Province. mindanews photo by ruby thursday more
Power projects boost investment pledges
Tagum tourism TAGUM CITY --- The Provincial Development Council (PDC) of Davao del Norte has proposed some P600-Million worth of tourism-related infrastructure projects to be funded under the last mile access to tourist destination program of the national government. In an interview, Provincial Gov. Rodolfo P. Rosario said the PDC had approved such amount of tourismrelated proposals to be funded by the Department of Tourism (DOT) in partnership with the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH). During the year-end meeting of PDC this morning, Del Rosario made a lengthy discussion on tourismrelated infrastructure projects to develop and promote tourist destinations in the province. Among the prime tourist destinations Del Rosario cited were the Bat Cave in the Island Garden City of Samal; the Waterfalls of Panas in the Municipality of New Corella; the highlands of Suaon going towards Gupitan in the Municipality of Kapalong; and zipline in Ata-Manobo area of the Municipality of Talaingod.
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SIMBANG GABI. Parishioners get their bibingka and suman after attending the ‘simbang gabi’ mass at the Our Lady Mediatrix of All Graces Cathedral in Kidapawan City. It’s a tradition that after hearing the mass, one has to have bibingka or other kakanin or else the ‘simbang gabi’ experience is not complete. mindanews photo by geonarri solmerano
P-Noy okays P2.265-T 2014 national budget CONSISTENT with the Administration’s tradition of enacting the National Budget on time, President Benigno S. Aquino III signed on Friday the P2.265-trillion 2014 General Appropriations Act (GAA), effectively setting next year’s expenditure program in motion and
instituting a range of public spending reforms that will bring greater efficiency, transparency, accountability, and openness in the budget process. T h e 2 0 1 4 G A A— 1 3 percent or P258.7 billion higher than the current year’s budget/PAGE 11
POWER-sector projects, including the two upcoming coal plants in Misamis Oriental, dominated the list of investment pledges registered with the Board of Investments (BOI) this year. Trade Undersecretary Adrian Cristobal Jr. said that commitments made by investors reached P403.17 billion in 2013, up 12 percent from last year’s P360.35 billion. Registration with the BOI enables the investor to claim various tax and other
perks, including income tax holidays, duty-free capital equipment imports, among others. Of the total amount committed, domestic firms pledged P298.24 billion, four percent higher than last year’s P286.3 billion. Fo r e i g n i nv e s t m e nt pledges accounted for the remaining 26 percent or P104.93 billion, which is 42 percent higher than last year’s P74 billion. Cristobal, who is also BOI managing head, said investors
pledged the most amount for power sector projects, followed by transportation and storage, real estate, mass housing and manufacturing. “We are aiming for more investments. The minimum we want is to sustain this growth. But the challenge that we have in promoting investments is to attract quality investments, the kind of investments that would generate stable and decent jobs for the country,” Cristobal said. power/PAGE 11
Davao inventors seek creation of ‘idea hatchery’ By MindaNews
DAVAO C i t y – L o c a l inventors have asked the city government to build a center that can help develop inventions and research ideas into saleable products. Called an “idea hatchery” by its proponents, the center will serve as a facility where ideas from groups like the academe can be pursued beyond the research phase. Virgilio M. Sangutan,
Davao Inventors Association (DIA) president, said in an interview that the organization had asked the city government for an area. “We’re aiming to help f utu re g r a du ate s f rom universities and colleges in Mindanao create businesses in the region,” Sangutan said. He said the organization had foreseen that in the next 20 years, there will be
a mismatch between jobs and unemployed college graduates who will be living in Davao City, including migrants from Visayas and Luzon. The plan is to make use of locally available raw materials such as coconuts, coir, activated carbon and organic fertilizers. “The facility will be a hatchery of ideas,” Sangutan said, describing the area as an agribusiness processing zone. seek/PAGE 11
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