B1
SUNDAY, OCTOBER 1, 2017
Business
Ray S. Eñano, Editor / Roderick dela Cruz, Issue Editor business@manilastandard.net
THE JAPANESE ARE COMING TO BUILD FIRST PH SUBWAY Scan this icon to view the PDF
Shinya Mitsudomi (left), corporate officer, group head of sales and managing director of Hitachi Ltd. Japan/Asia Pacific and Mitsushiko Shimizu,general manager of Hitachi Asia Ltd. Philippine Branch answer questions from journalists during a news briefing at Makati Shangri-La Hotel in Makati City.
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APANESE companies are now lining up to win construction contracts for the first subway in the Philippines, and one of them—Hitachi Ltd.—came to Manila to present its engineering capability to undertake what will be the country’s most expensive infrastructure project to date.
“We are explaining our capability to the government and stakeholders,” said Shinya Mitsudomi, corporate officer, group head of sales and managing director of Hitachi Ltd. Japan/Asia Pacific. Hitachi Ltd. and regional unit Hitachi Asia Ltd. hosted Hitachi Social Innovation Forum 2017 at Makati Shangri-La Hotel in Makati City on Sept. 29 where top executives discussed Hitachi’s contribution towards social innovation for over 100 years, its full product range, turnkey, operations, maintenance solutions and international footprint. The forum presented Hitachi’s railway solutions, with Mitsudomi discussing the latest trends in the global railway industry, including future technologies on asset monitoring, IOT/analytics and maintenance optimization that Hitachi Rail is spearheading. “Hitachi has a long history in rail business. We have a very big global footprint. That kind of experience is very much important to construct a stable and high-quality railway system in the Philippines. In addition, we now have a very big and strong turnkey engineering solutions. We have a lot of experience in the world, including Honolulu, Peru, Taiwan,” Mitsudomi said during a news briefing ahead of the forum. Hitachi is among the Japanese companies interested in the P355.6-billion Metro Manila Subway Project and other rail systems that will be implemented by the Philippine government, with the help of Japan International Cooperation Agency, Japan’s main donor agency. Mitsushiko Shimizu, the barong-clad general manager of Hitachi Asia Ltd. Philippine Branch, said Hitachi would employ more Filipinos once it won the subway project and other infrastructure contracts in the country. “We have 11 companies here, with 3,000 employees,” Shimizu said. The subway project, which will run more than 30 kilometers from Mindanao Ave. in Quezon City to FTI in Taguig, before terminating at Ninoy Aquino International Airport in Parañaque City, will be funded by an official development assistance loan from Jica. The loan will have an interest of 0.10 percent per annum payable in 40 years with a grace period of 12 years. In exchange of the concessional
loan, Japanese companies will be prioritized to handle the construction of the project, which is typical of a Japanese ODA loan agreement. Hitachi Social Innovation Forum introduced Hitachi’s railway solutions and presented how it could contribute to improving the Philippines’ railway systems and infrastructures. “We are able to provide safe, efficient and sustainable railway systems that are also environment-friendly. Railway has been drawing global attention due to its potential as a form of transportation infrastructure that can deal with many challenges faced by rapidly growing economies like the Philippines,” Shimizu said. “Through the Hitachi Social Innovation Forum and the company’s Social Innovation Business, we aim to contribute to the Philippines’ growth trajectory in an inclusive and sustainable manner,” Shimizu said. The subway project is a part of the Duterte administration’s P8-trillion ‘Build, Build, Build’ program that aims to decongest Metro Manila and spread out development to other parts of the country. Metro Manila Development Authority chairman Danilo Lim said the subway project, along with a longer Skyway, Metro Rail Transit Line 7 along Commonwealth Ave., NLEx-SLEx Connector Road and a rail line from Tutuban to Malolos to Clark will help ease traffic congestion in the coming years. The Cabinet last month approved the first phase of the subway project that will cost at least P355 billion to build. It involves the construction of a 28-hectare training center and depot in Valenzuela City as well as other related facilities. Implementation period is from 2018 to mid-2025. National Economic and Development Authority director-general Ernesto Pernia said the first phase of the subway project would not only ease traffic in Metro Manila but also improve the quality of life of Filipinos. “For one, carbon emissions will be reduced. And, with greater mobility, people can spend more time on things that matter to them,” Pernia said in a statement. Travel time from Mindanao Ave. to FTI complex in Taguig City is expected to take only 31 minutes onboard the subway rail project. It is expected to serve 365,000 passengers in the first year of operations. Phase 1 of the project, or the subway central zone, will traverse six cities, including Valenzuela City (for the depot), Quezon City, Pasig City, Makati City, Taguig City and Parañaque City. It will have underground stations at Mindanao Ave., Tandang Sora, North Ave., Quezon Ave., East Ave., Anonas, Katipunan, Ortigas North, Ortigas South, Kalayaan Ave., Fort Bonifacio, Cayetano Boulevard, FTI and Naia. Phase 2 will extend the subway to Caloocan or Meycauayan, Bulacan in the north and to Dasmariñas, Cavite in the south.
First phase of the subway project was previously designed to end at FTI, but Transportation Secretary Arthur Tugade, along with other economic managers, pushed to have a spur line extending the subway to Naia to make it easier for airport passengers to get to their destination in Metro Manila. “In most of our neighboring countries in Asia, you can reach the city without ever leaving the platform. So, economic managers thought we’re going to build a subway anyway. So why not push to extend it to Naia? It just makes perfect sense. The extension will mean greater connectivity and improved passenger comfort and convenience,” Tugade said in a separate statement. Groundbreaking is currently scheduled in fourth quarter of 2018 while target completion is 2025. Cabinet officials, however, asked Jica to expedite the start of construction so that a portion of the subway can open within the term of President Rodrigo Duterte. Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III recently led a Philippine delegation to the 3rd PhilippinesJapan High-Level Meeting of the Joint Committee on Infrastructure Development and Economic Cooperation in Tokyo to push for “Fast and Sure” principle. The Filipino and Japanese officials agreed to streamline their respective approval processes and introduce measures to put in the fast lane the implementation of the subway and other big-ticket infrastructure projects presented by Manila to Tokyo for possible financing. Dominguez said in a statement that “significant milestones” were reached in the processing of the jointly agreed project list between the two countries. “Now that our plans have progressed, we intend to lay out specific plans on how to expedite the processing and implementation of the flagship projects,” Dominguez said. Atsushi Konno, general manager of Hitachi Asia Ltd.’s corporate communications group, said Hitachi has the capability to complete major rail projects on schedule, based on its performance in other countries. Hitachi focuses on the so-called social innovation business and offers a broad range of information and telecommunication systems, power systems, social infrastructure and industrial systems, electronic systems and equipment, construction machinery, high functional materials and components, automotive systems, home appliances and others. Hitachi said that under its 2018 mid-term management plan, it targets to increase its overseas sales ratio to more than 55 percent. “The Philippines will play an instrumental role in helping Hitachi achieve this target by focusing on energy management, railway and urban development solutions in addition to its high functional materials and ICT businesses,” the Japanese company said. Roderick T. dela Cruz
MOST FILIPINOS NOW TALK TO SOFTWARE ROBOTS By Ryan Carlos Gamilla NINETY percent of Filipino consumers now experience interacting with virtual
agents or software robots monthly, a study conducted by Forrester Consulting for software company Amdocs shows. Costumers of communications and media service providers in the Philippines have given their critical judgment on use of artificial intelligence for customer care and commerce and how they want software robots or chatbots to serve them. “I don’t think there’s anyone around the world to say AI [artificial intelligence] is not gonna change them, quite the reverse. Actually it’s really gonna start to revolutionize and transform businesses and people’s experiences across the world,” says
Dan Horan, chief digital officer and chief marketing officer for Asia Pacific of Amdocs. Amdocs surveyed 7,200 consumers, 521 of them from the Philippines, and 31 communication service providers across the world, 10 of them from Asia Pacific. Forrester and Amdocs conducted two surveys among consumers and decision makers at CSPs to identify the correlation between consumers’expectations and CSPs’investments. The survey shows that consumers understand virtual agents are here to stay and they are open to use them as 90 percent of consumers engage with bots between once a day to once a month. Almost half agree that these interactions will be an increasing part of their life. The findings, however, show that current virtual agents struggle to deliver value
and meet customer satisfaction. Bots, say consumers, cannot deal with complex requests (their biggest problem), understand human emotions (second biggest problem) or deliver personalized offers as well as humans (third biggest problem). About 67 percent of consumers think CSPs are investing in AI to reduce costs and cut jobs while 77 percent of the CSPs state that they are measuring the value of their AI-powered processes and bots investments in satisfaction metrics. Ninety percent of Filipino state that its more convenient (43 percent) and quicker (46 percent), but 48 percent say this is only because they had no other option. If offered a choice, 87 percent would prefer to speak to a human since human agents better understand their needs (83 percent)
and can address multiple questions at once (63 percent). The results of the survey suggested that CSPs must close the customer experience and expectation gap with clear plan to further the function of AI and produce contentment to customers. CSPs must involve the right people in the AI strategy process, focus on intelligence, and align the core use cases with what consumers want. “The good news is consumers actually believe that if anyone can get AI right, the communications and media industry can. And that’s ahead of retailers and banks. So AI could be a winning gambit for service providers as long as they sync up their AI investment priorities with what customers actually want,” says Gary Miles, general manager of Amdocs.
DRAGON SHINES IN INT’L PYRO SPECTACLE IT IS a spectacular way to live up to a company’s name in time for the Christmas holiday season. More than asserting the company’s product excellence, Dragon Fireworks Inc. brought fame, honor and pride to the Philippines. DFI bagged the Jury Prize at the Festival D’ Art Pyrotechnique de Cannes in France recently. DFI, the biggest and most awarded fireworks manufacturing company in the country brought home the Jury Prize from the most prestigious fireworks display competition in Europe. Because of this award, DFI was invited to the next round, dubbed the Battle of the Champions edition where all winning nations over the last three years of the competitions would square off. Joven Ong, managing director of DFI, said the invitation is a huge honor because it is one of two most prestigious World of Fireworks Championships. He said while many fireworks companies applied, only a few were invited to join the Festival D’ Art Pyrotechnique de Cannes, and Dragon Fireworks was lucky to be given the opportunity to represent the Philippines to showcase its excellence in the art of fireworks display. Ong expressed appreciation to the Filipinos who came to watch the competition, and gave their solid support to the country’s entry. “We are truly honored to represent the Philippines wherever we join these fireworks competitions. We are also happy that our fellow Filipinos came out to watch our show which was well liked by the audiences and jury alike,” said Ong. Ong said that after the competition, they also received positive messages and commentaries from social media, indicating admiration for the fireworks display. Ong said he expects the same support from Filipinos for a grander, more spectacular fireworks display next year. Ong who is also the president of the Philippine Fireworks Association, believes that because of the prize, his company would be able to convince other nations to make the Philippines an option as a tourist destination where they could experience impressive fireworks from DFI. “I believe that with our wins in European competitions, we somehow bring not only pride to our fellow countrymen, but encourage Europeans to take a look at our country as a possible destination to go to. We try our best to show what the Philippines has to offer and carry ourselves as ambassadors of our country in the field of pyrotechnics,” said Ong. DFI also won at the Pyronale in Berlin, Germany and snagged the gold prize in Flammende Sterne in Ostfildern, and the silver prize at the Silver Anniversary edition of the Hannover International Fireworks Competition held at the famous Unesco World Herritage Herrenhausen Gardens. Ong said his desire to win is not only for his company but also for the country. DFI seeks to make the country at par with, if not ahead of the world’s best fireworks makers and exporters of high quality and grand pyrotechnics. “ We t r y to j o i n t h e to p 5 competitions in the world. This is like a professional golf or tennis player trying to join the elite competitions of their sport. This way, when you win, you are able to gauge yourself only with the best in your field of expertise,” Ong said. Ong’s team is composed of Don Miguel Villarosa, Eduard Ilagan, Hans Ong, Jay Turingan, Joseph Veloso, Oliver Zeng and Vander Tenedero who choreographed the fireworks display. DFI is busy crafting a good concept for an even grander fireworks display next year to ensure getting the championship and Gold Vestale which would add another honor to the country.