BusinessWeek M I N DA N A O CREDIBLE
Volume VIII, No. 149
Market Indicators FOREX
PHISIX
US$1 = P52.47
7,560.47
27.5 cents
85.73
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Briefly Rural bank reforms DAVAO City —The Department of Finance (DOF) is pushing a trio of initiatives to enable the rural banking system to meet the challenge of reducing the number of “unbanked” Filipinos, given that this sector is at the frontline of the Duterte administration’s efforts to attain financial inclusion. Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III said the reality is that a majority of Filipinos remain unbanked to this day even when the economy is growing at a fast pace is “not a good indicator,” as this means they have neither access to financial services nor ways to participate in investments. The finance department with the help of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) and state-owned banks, are finding ways to relax requirements for deposits, introduce new financial products and increase the use of new technologies for electronic payments systems to help rural bankers in their “urgent” mission of reducing the number of unbanked Filipinos, especially in the countryside, he explained.
Convergence program DAVAO City -- Local government tourism officers are keeping their optimism alive that the convergence program that the Department of Tourism (DOT) has with other departments will be continued and sustained by its newly-appointed chief, Secretary Bernadette RomuloPuyat. “I hope she continues the good projects especially the convergence programs with the national agencies,” said Davao del Norte Provincial Tourism Director Noel Daquioag. “We have the DOT-DPWH (Department of Tourism-Department of Public Works and Highways) convergence program in which we are building roads to tourism sites,” he said. “We also have convergence projects with the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI).”
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Cagayan de Oro Lapasan Highway, Cagayan de Oro City
P52-B VisMin interlink project gets approval www.businessweekmindanao.com
As of 6:00 pm May 23, 2018 (wednesday)
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YOUR Mindanao-wide BUSINESS paper
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Friday|May 25, 2018
By MYRNA M. VELASCO, Contributor
HE Energy Investment Coordinating Council (EICC) has approved the P52billion Visayas-Mindanao Interconnection Project (VMIP) of the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) as the first major power investment securing certification as “energy project of national significance.”
This was announced to the media by Energy Secretary Alfonso G. Cusi, who raised hopes that this long-aspired for link-up of power grids will finally be concretized as targeted in 2020-2021. The EICC, being the approving body for the issuance of certificate of
P15.00
energy projects of national significance (CEPNS) is headed by the Department of Energy (DOE) and has m e mb e r s h ip s f rom a l l relevant government agencies involved in the permitting and licensing of energy projects. “We already approved
the VisMin interconnection project of NGCP. We already issued its certificate as energy project of national significance,” the energy chief told reporters. The VMIP is the country’s realization of its long-term aspirat ion of hav ing a interlink/PAGE 8
Proposed bridge project to hasten dev’t of IGACOS By ANTONIO L. COLINA IV, MindaNews
STOP MARTIAL LAW. Moro militant groups picket the provincial capitol of Lanao del Sur in Marawi City on Wednesday, May 23, demanding an end to martial law and for their return to their homes within the Most Affected Area. The day marked the first anniversary of the siege that displaced the city’s population and destroyed its busiest commercial district. mindanews photo by ferdinandh b. cabrera
Resolutions filed urging Senate to probe Marawi siege, rehab By CAROLYN O. ARGUILLAS, MindaNews
DAVAO City — A resolution has been filed before the S enate C ommittee on National Defense and Security to conduct an investigation into the circumstances that led to the Marawi Siege, the “longest armed conflict in the country’s recent history,” with
the end in view of “instituting policies to ensure that past shortcomings, if there are any, will not be repeated, so similar circumstances can be avoided and or better dealt with in the future.” Senator Antonio Trillanes filed Senate Resolution No.
743 on Wednesday, exactly a year after the Marawi Siege began, noting that there should be “joint efforts between the Department of National Defense and other government agencies to assess the lessons, including lapses on the part of the government, why the battle between the resolutions/PAGE 9
D AVA O C i t y - - T h e construction of the proposed Davao City-Samal bridge project, which is already re c om m e n d e d f or f u l l feasibility study with funding from Asian Development Bank (ADB), will hasten the development of the Island Garden City of Samal (IGACOS) as the prime tourist destination in the Davao Region. In an interview on Monday, Davao del Norte Tourism Of f icer No el Daquioag said that the presence of
the bridge would lower the cost of construction on the island because it will provide an easier access from the mainland and thus speed up development. Even though there are willing investors to put up accommodation facilities, Daquioag said they are apprehensive about entering the island due to the high cost in putting up those projects as most of the construction materials would still have to be shipped from the bridge/PAGE 8
PAPAYA. Workers load papayas onto a truck in a plantation in Pinamangculan, Butuan City. Little it is known, papayas grow well in this part of Caraga and are brought to a processing factory in Cagayan de Oro. photo by jun ayensa
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