Infrastructure projects to keep economy afloat this year

By Julito G. Rada

ECONOMIC growth prospects remain bright as the government’s spending on infrastructure projects will offset any possible slowdown in employment in the first quarter, private sector economists said Tuesday.

Economists from First Metro Investment Corp. and the University of Asia and the Pacific said in a joint report the unemployment rate inched up slightly to 4.3 percent in December 2022 from 4.2 percent in November.

They said firms relied on more hours of input from workers in December from the previous month and employed less people by 707,000.

“The slowdown should continue in January although the resumption of in-

DIGITALIZATION MOVEMENT.

Manuel Pangilinan, the chairman, president and chief executive of Metro Pacific Investments Corp., expresses support for the GoDigital Pilipinas movement by aligning the group’s business strategies to help boost the country’s progressing digital pivot. The conglomerate is fortifying the GDP movement, recently launched by the Private Sector Advisory Council, through implementing technological advancements in the operations of all its subsidiaries. With investments in power, water, toll roads, light rail, healthcare and agriculture, MPIC seeks to digitalize the daily lives of all Filipinos, widen digital accessibility and help the country achieve progress.

frastructure spending in 2023 would provide a buffer,” they said.

Data showed that the purchasing managers index reached a seven-month high of 53.5 in January. The improvement from 53.1 in December suggested no letup in the key subsector and boosted business confidence, they said.

PMI is a measure of the prevailing direction of economic trends in manufacturing. It is based on a monthly survey of supply chain managers across 19 industries, covering both upstream and downstream activity.

“Despite the usual easing of employment levels in December, the economy still looks sufficiently robust to weather the global headwinds,” they said.

“The economy still showed signs of resilience despite the weakened global

NTC plans to postpone analog TV broadcasting shutoff this year

By Darwin Amojelar

THE National Telecommunications Commission will unlikely shut off analog television broadcasting this year because of the slow adoption of digital terrestrial TV among households in the provinces, a top official said Tuesday.

“We’re looking at this year [analog shutdown], but it’s still tentative,” NTC commissioner Ella Blanca Lopez said.

The government was planning to stop the analog TV broadcast in 2023, but Lopez said most of the households, particularly in the provinces, were not digital-ready.

The Department of Information and Communications Technology earlier estimated that more than 14 million households nationwide were still relying on free-to-air analog TV broadcast.

“It would be difficult to shut down, when not all were digital-ready,” Lopez said, adding digital TV penetration in the country remained below 50 percent.

“The penetration rate in Metro Manila is high, but not in the provinces. Networks rolled out their digital [systems], so we will get there,” she said.

GMA Network Inc. announced last year an additional investment of more than P1 billion for the expansion of its digital TV coverage nationwide. economic outlook. Employment may ease in first quarter slightly but should recover as NG [national government] ramps up infrastructure spending with the early approval of its budget and the manufacturing sub-sector emitting positive signals in January 2023,” they said.

It rolled out GMA Affordabox—a plug-and-play device that can easily be connected to an analog TV in order to receive digital television broadcast.

TV5 Network Inc. in September 2021 launched its DTT set top box called Sulit TV Box, while ABSCBN Corp. introduced TVplus box in 2015. The NTC issued Memorandum Circular No. 05-11-2013 in November 2013, adopting Japan’s ISDB-T standard for the Philippines’ migration to digital TV.

The 4.3 percent jobless rate in December was lower than 6.6 percent a year ago. Unemployment rate averaged 5.4 percent in 2022, near the pre-pandemic level of 5.1 percent in 2019. It also eased from 7.8 percent in 2021 and 10.4 percent in 2020.

FMIC and UA&P economists predicted that inflation—one of the persistent threats to economic growth— would likely remain elevated and average 8.1 percent in the first quarter this year.

Pse Index Closing

Tuesday,

By Othel V. Campos

KIA Philippines Motor Corp. said Tuesday its sales grew 34 percent in 2022 to 5,012 vehicles from 3,748 units in 2021.

“Kia Philippines achieved a record-breaking 34-percent sales increase as compared to 2021. This figure is higher than the auto industry’s 26 percent,” the automaker said in a statement.

The Korean brand is one of the six global brands distributed by AC Motors—a wholly-owned automotive unit of Ayala Corp. Since 2019 when Kia Philippines rebranded globally and locally, it outpaced the overall industry’s performance in terms of growth and rivaled the accomplishments of other leading brands.

The brand also achieved the highest growth rate in the Asia Pacific region and was the top independent distributor in retail sales in 2022. Customer satisfaction registered the highest improvement in the region, based on surveys conducted by Kia Asia Pacific.

Kia PH attributed the string of successes to the significant efforts pooled by dealer principals who have worked tirelessly to reach the milestones. From 30 dealers in 2018, Kia PH grew to 42 dealers in 2022.

The auto firm said dealerships nationwide were encouraged to launch rebranding schemes parallel to the rebranding efforts of Kia Corp. By end-2023, all Kia dealers will sport refreshed exteriors, and by next year, will share Kia’s revamped interior design aesthetic.

Kia will launch in March its first dedicated battery electric vehicle—the EV6 which along with its supporting charging ecosystem represent a pivotal shift into the electric vehicle market.

It noted that based on the report of Bank of Philippine Islands lead economist Jun Neri, auto sales would continue to grow at a hefty pace in 2023 after the industry showed signs of recovery in 2022.

Neri said the sustained economic recovery was expected in 2023 because of fewer international and domestic travel restrictions; easier access to consumer credit; a reduced unemployment rate boosting purchasing power and consumer credit scores; an inflation slowdown; and a more stable foreign exchange environment.

By Alena Mae S. Flores

SAN Miguel Consolidated Power Corp. is building a 56-megawatt gas turbine power plant in Zamboanga City at a cost of P3.2 billion.

SMCPC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of SMC Global Power Holdings Corp., said in a report to the Department of Environment and Natural Resources it received an environmental compliance certificate for the project’s first phase involving a 28-MW gas turbine power plant in Sangali, Zamboanga City. The ECC-approved project is under construction, but SMCPC decided to increase its power generating capacity to 56 MW because of the projected increase in power demand in the Zamboanga Peninsula.

SMCPC submitted the gas turbine power plant expansion project to the DENR’s Environmental Management Bureau for public scoping.

SMCPC said the deployment of modular, fast-start, high-speed, quickresponse, small-capacity, diesel-fired generating units would alleviate the power supply delivery and voltage stability issues in Zamboanga.