BUSINESS

By Julito G. Rada

FACTORY output grew faster in May compared to the previous months’ as inflation rate decelerated since February this year, data from the Philippine Statistics Authority showed Friday.

The PSA’s Monthly Integrated Survey of Selected Industries indicated that the volume of production index posted a year-on-year increase of 8.1 percent in May, faster than 7.7 percent in April. VoPI recorded an annual drop of -0.6 percent in May 2022.

Michael Ricafort, chief economist of Rizal Commercial Banking Corp., said the easing trend in inflation and the reopening of the economy such as the recovery of tourism and other sectors, would help sustain further gains in manufacturing, especially if interest

World Bank, CFSI grant $4m to help former rebels

WORLD Bank and Community Family Services International signed a $4-million (roughly P220 million) grant agreement to support sustainable livelihoods and participation in resilient and inclusive communities of former Moro Islamic Liberation Front combatants and their families.

The World Bank said in a statement Friday the agreement would provide economic support to about 39,200 people in six rural communities.

The community-driven project is being financed under the Bangsamoro Normalization Trust Fund. The fund oversees assistance from development partners for the decommissioning of MILF combatants in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao and is administered by the World Bank.

The Bangsamoro Camps Transformation Project supports the Philippines’ agenda to increase availability of services in conflictaffected areas.

“The long-term goal is to contribute to income stabilization and food security of households in these communities through improved basic infrastructure, enhanced livelihood diversification, and climate-smart agriculture,” said World Bank country director for Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines and Thailand Ndiamé Diop. Julito G. Rada

Univercells interested in PH virology institute

GLOBAL life sciences company Univercells Technologies is interested in teaming up with the Department of Trade and Industry for the roll-out of the Vaccine Self Reliance Program and the development of the Virology Institute of the Philippines.

Trade Secretary Alfredo Pascual said the collaboration with the Belgian biotechnology company would contribute to the Philippines’ goal of achieving vaccine selfreliance and advancing the field of virology within the country.

“One of the top priorities of the Philippines in terms of gathering investments is the manufacturing of vaccines and biologics, which is part of our health and life sciences priority cluster. With this, we aim to establish security in addressing current and future health emergences and pandemics. And this can be done if the country will be able to position itself as a manufacturing hub for vaccines,” said Pascual.

Univercells’ Quantoom enable the efficient production of vaccines at a smaller scale. By downsizing traditional manufacturing processes, Univercells democratizes vaccine production by equipping developing countries with the tools to establish local vaccine production facilities tailored to their specific needs. Othel V. Campos

Converge offers cloud solutions for MSMEs

CONVERGE ICT Solutions Inc. said Friday it is offering a suite of cloud-based business productivity solutions for micro, small and medium enterprises.

Empowering MSMEs through technology is the driving force behind Converge Workplace, which offers three tailor-fit products including SweldoMo, Device Solutions and Hotel Management Solution.

“Just because you’re a small business does not mean you shouldn’t have the capabilities of larger enterprises. We’re leveling the playing field here for MSMEs because we want them to be more competitive. With these flexible solutions, they can cut down on additional costs such as a huge IT department or expensive hardware,” said Converge ICT chief operations officer Jesus Romero.

SweldoMo is the Converge automated HR, payroll and timekeeping solution which takes care of a basic function of a business. The solution is flexible enough to adapt to different compensation arrangements such as variable pay.

Darwin G. Amojelar

rates start to go down eventually.

“The further growth in manufacturing [was] due to easing prices/inflation that also reduced the production costs of manufacturers,” Ricafort said.

Inflation, which peaked at 8.7 percent in January 2023, eased to 8.6 percent in February, 7.6 percent in March, 6.6 percent in April, 6.1 percent in May and 5.4 percent in June.

“The expansion in the annual growth of VoPI in May 2023 was mainly contributed by the annual upturn in manufacture of electrical equipment with 53.7 percent during the period from 19.2 percent in April 2023. The manu- facture of electrical equipment shared 27.3 percent to the annual acceleration of VoPI of the manufacturing sector in May 2023,” the PSA said.

Other primary contributors to the year-on-year uptrend of VoPI were the slower annual decline noted in manufacture of chemical and chemical products at -21.2 percent during the period from -32.2 percent in the previous month, and the annual increase in manufacture of beverages at 3.9 percent in May from -0.5 percent decline in April.

The PSA said of the remaining 19 industry divisions, nine exhibited annual increases in May, while 10 industry divisions recorded annual decrements. The highest annual decline was noted in the manufacture of furniture at -31.3 percent.

Meanwhile, the value of production index for manufacturing posted an annual increase of 10.3 percent in May, faster than 10.1 percent in April and 6.6 percent a year ago.

“The annual upturn in the VaPI in May 2023 was mainly contributed by the faster annual increase in the manufacture of electrical equipment industry division at 54.2 percent in May 2023 from 19.5 percent in the previous month,” the PSA said.