100roses’s Blog
Just another WordPress.com weblogArchive for October, 2008
Bizmen see Davao City’s construction boom
Davao City (1 March) — Business leaders see a boom in the construction industry of Davao as more infrastructure projects are in the pipeline for the next three years.
Engr. Ramon Allado, president of Allado Construction Company Southern Philippines Construction Core Group revealed in a briefing during the opening of the 2nd International Building Materials, Interior Products, Construction Equipment and Services Exhibition that with government spending in infrastructure more projects are coming for the Davao Region.
The construction held at SM City Event Center will run until March 2, 2008 is joined mostly of multi-national companies with offices in Metro Manila.
He admitted that the industry is heavily dependent on government spending particularly on infrastructure where some P2 to P3 billion will be allocated starting this year for various projects to include roads and bridges which will complete the needed links within the island of Mindanao.
But he said that there is the other side of construction that is growing as many individual constructions of residences are on the rise mostly commissioned by the Overseas Filipino Workers.
“There is a rise of growth especially in real estate whether it be socialized, medium or high-end residences. And this is beyond government spending,” he said.
He also said that the boom of the construction industry is now felt in Davao especially that all big time contractors in Manila are now in Davao City.
He mentioned among others the ongoing projects in Davao being undertaken among others by Robinsons in Bajada, the Ayala Land where it is developing a ten-hectare area along J P Laurel Avenue, the Davao Motor Sales in Lanang, the Consunji Group where it is building two condominium structures along Ecoland, Filinvest Land, Inc. where some seven single medium rise for condominium will soon rise also in Ecoland and the Crown Asia Group of Companies that continue to build both medium and high-end residences.
“The boom is here and will be there for the next five years depending on the political situation and peace and order here,” he said.
He also said that when the peace agreement will soon be reached this will be an added boost to the industry.
“And hopefully with both the peace and order and political stability the boom of the industry could last for the nest 20 years,” he said.
Davao City Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Inc. (DCCCII) chair Simeon Marfori urged the construction sector to revisit their approach of the industry.
He said the sector should look at the cost to business but rather as a service.
“Whatever is constructed is after all made for the people and whatever you construct is for the benefit of the consumer,” he said.
He said they should look at the work that could be affordable or perhaps engage in a profit sharing scheme saying that contractors also must engage in the continuing training of workers like in carpentry, plumbing and masonry that workers if given the skills have the opportunity to engage in better paying jobs.
He also throw the idea for the construction industry to consider cross contracting rather than the traditional sub-contracting even as he said that they create new niche in the industry so that more work will be added.
He encouraged the sector to build more partners rather than clients and more communities rather than structures. (PIA) [top]
source: http://www.pia.gov.ph/?m=12&sec=reader&rp=1&fi=p080301.htm&no=5&date=3/1/2008
Agility to invest $10bn in the Philippines
Kuwaiti firms including logistics provider Agility plan to invest more than $10 billion in infrastructure projects in the Philippines, the company leading the group said on Tuesday.
The firms and one non-Kuwaiti company plan to develop airports, ports, railways, power stations and telecommunications, Kuwait investment firm Al-Abraj Holding Company said in a statement.
The deal is pending a signing with the Philippine government expected at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland, later this month, Al-Abraj Deputy chairman Sameer Nasser Ali Hussein told newswire Reuters.
The Philippines government has said it wants to invest 1.7 trillion pesos ($41 billion) in its power, water, telecommunications and transport industries by 2010. Last year, it offered 10 infrastructure projects worth $2 billion to foreign investors.
Gulf Arab states and companies, buoyed by record oil prices, have been looking to invest more in Asia, where economies are growing faster than in Europe and the US, traditional destinations for their surplus funds.
Qatar’s $60 billion sovereign wealth fund, the Qatar Investment Authority (QIA), said last month it plans to spend at least $850 million in Indonesia, its biggest commitment to the country.
Kuwait’s Al-Abraj said the group would set up a holding company in Europe, of which the Kuwaiti partners would own 75% and British firm Argon, acting on behalf of Philippine authorities, 25%. This could change a little, Hussein said.
He said Al-Abraj wanted to raise the money possibly through an initial public offering, while Philippine institutions would also contribute to the project.
Kuwaiti partners include International Leasing & Investment and Al-Mal Investment Company, Al-Abraj said.
Agility said negotiations were continuing. “A big part of this project would come to Agility,” Hussein said.
The biggest investment from the Middle East in the Philippines is a 40% stake held by state-owned Saudi Aramco in Petron Corporation, the largest oil refiner in the country. (Reuters)
source: http://www.arabianbusiness.com/508352-agility-to-invest-10bn-in-the-philippines?ln=en
PHILIPPINES CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY GROWS 9.3 PCT IN Q2 2008
DAVAO CITY, Oct 29 Asia Pulse – The construction industry in the Philippines grew in the second quarter of this year as the number of approved building permits nationwide surged by 9.3 per cent, or a total of 25,145 applications compared with the same period of 2007, which register only 23,003 applications.
Data from the National Statistics Office (NSO) showed the increase in both residential and non-residential building constructions. Residential building construction went up by 16.9 per cent to 18,451 from 15,781 approved building permits during the same quarter of 2007 while non-residential constructions, likewise, increased by 7.5 per cent to 2,707 from 2,518 during the same quarter of 2007.
Total value of construction during the second quarter of 2008 was estimated at P38.3 billion representing an increase of 29.1 per cent from P29.7 billion recorded during the same period of 2007. Value of construction for residential buildings rose by 36.5 per cent to P18.3 billion, from P13.4 billion recorded during the same period of 2007.
Value of non-residential building construction, likewise, went up by 19.4 per cent to P16.9 billion from P14.1 billion recorded during the same quarter of 2007.
However, combined approved building permits for additions, alterations and repairs decreased by 15.2 per cent to 3,987 from 4,704 approved building permits, the NSO data further showed. The number of approved building permits was highest in CALABARZON (Region IV-A) with 5,096 applications or 20.3 per cent. This was followed by the National Capital Region (NCR) with 4,184 applications or 16.7 per cent.
Six provinces registered approved building permits exceeding more than a thousand mark. These were Bulacan (1,377), Cavite (1,719), Laguna (1,014), Rizal (1,108), Cebu (1,069), and Davao del Sur (1,077), NSO said.
The combined value for additions, alterations and repairs, estimated at P3.1 billion, jumped by 46.9 per cent from P2.1 billion registered during the same quarter of the previous year.
The value of construction in the National Capital Region (NCR) consistently remained highest at P20.2 billion, accounting for 52.8 per cent share of the total value. CALABARZON and Central Luzon followed a far second and third with shares of 11.8 per cent (P4.5 billion) and 8.3 per cent (P3.2 billion), respectively.
Foreign chambers vow strong support to country’s SMEs
The American, Australian-New Zealand, British, Canadian, and European Chambers of Commerce yesterday vowed to provide strong support to the country’s small and medium scale enterprises (SME).
The foreign chambers said SMEs provide the steadying factor for the Philippine economy as it braces for the impact of the global economic crisis which has now crept into the Asian region.
“The SMEs will keep the Philippine economy afloat in times of crisis but they need support,” Australian-New Zealand Chamber of Commerce executive director Claudine David said.
David further added the foreign chambers have been consistent in providing the SMEs with a venue for their products and services and a wide network of member companies which the industry can tap.
Government data shows that SMEs comprise 99.60 percent of all registered firms nationwide, employs 70 percent of the labor force, and contributes 32 percent of the country’s gross national product.
The government has also acknowledged the contributions of the SMEs when Malacañang signed into law Republic Act No. 9178 otherwise known as the Barangay Micro Business Enterprise Act of 2002.
To show their continued commitment to the SME industry, the foreign chambers have gathered together more than 100 companies for this year’s installment of the Foreign Chambers SME Trade Fair in SM Megamall in Mandaluyong City.
source: http://www.mb.com.ph/BSNS20081031139521.html
RP franchise firms push entrepreneurship
MANILA, Philippines–A group of some 80 homegrown franchise firms, which are small- and medium-scale, recently embarked on a campaign to promote entrepreneurship as their combined sales grew 31 percent to P13.8 billion in 2007.
Rommel T. Juan, president of the Association of Filipino Franchisers Inc., said in an interview that the group has grown to represent one percent of the country’s gross domestic product from a handful of 10 founding member-firms in 1997.
“From a few outlets, we now have more than 4,000 spread across the country,” Juan said. “From a few helpers, we now employ more than 24,000 employees.”
Juan said AFFI members’ collective growth of 31 percent bested industry averages while they averaged P38 million in daily sales last year.
“In this backdrop, AFFI has launched our Kabuhayang Pinoy Muna (KPM) advocacy campaign, consistent with our commitment to develop and support local entrepreneurship,” he added.
Juan, who is also president of Binalot Fiesta Foods, said the KPM was aimed at promoting homegrown Filipino business ideas, initiatives and enterprises, particularly micro-, small- and medium-scale.
“AFFI believes that the development of the Pinoy entrepreneurial spirit will result in a deep and wide base of Filipino SMEs all over the country that will become a key to alleviating poverty and attaining long-term, sustainable economic growth,” he said.
Juan said that while the campaign was grounded on Affi’s conviction that “Filipinos are just as imaginative, creative and sharp in business as the best in the world,” it was also meant to help change the growing negativism among many who feel opportunities to prosper could only be found abroad.
He said another AFFI drive would be a grassroots outreach campaign that involves tours to schools, institutions and communities where the group would promote homegrown business opportunities.
“We will also reach out to more people through a series of public fora for overseas workers, retirees and government employees,” Juan said.
“We plan to mentor students all the way down to elementary schools, to start them young and early on the path of entrepreneurship and break the ‘lifetime employee’ mentality,” he added.
Juan said AFFI was planning to hold job and business opportunity fairs on school campuses.
“We hope to inspire fellow Filipinos to once more believe in themselves, their ideas, their dreams and most importantly, in their country,” he said. “Our slogan is Bago Ang Iba, Kabuhayang Pinoy Muna [Before Anything Else, Filipino Livelihood First].”
Information Technology-Philippines
Philippines
Overview
(In $ Millions)
2006 (estimated)
Total Market Size 4.30 billion
Total Local Production 7.60 billion
Total Exports 7.60 billion
Total Imports 4.30 billion
Imports from the U.S. 186
(Notes: 2004 and 2005 are actual figures taken from National Statistics Office. 2006 data are estimates gathered from industry experts. According to industry sources, recorded exports include parts, disks and recorded media, among other items, which are locally assembled at Export Processing Zones and re-exported. That is, none of the locally assembled IT products are sold in the domestic market. Total Local Production therefore equals Total Exports.) (More…)
Full Story: http://www.buyusa.gov/asianow/pit.html
Big-time rollback
Oil companies slashed pump prices yesterday by as much as P6 per liter, the biggest one-time rollback since the implementation of the oil deregulation law 10 years ago.
Unioil Petroleum Corp. implemented the biggest cut, at P6 per liter for diesel and P2.50 for gasoline and kerosene.
Petron Corp., Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corp., Chevron Philippines, Total Philippines Corp., PTT Philippines and Eastern Petroleum Corp. rolled back their prices by P5 per liter for diesel and P2 for gasoline and kerosene.
Seaoil cut its diesel prices by P4 per liter. Flying V cut its diesel price by P4 and its gasoline by P2 per liter. Flying V chairman Ramon Villavicencio said another cut of P3 to P4 is expected for diesel products in December.
Local petroleum firms implemented sharper price cuts in the light of falling global crude prices as well as pressure from consumer and militant groups.
Dubai crude, the pricing benchmark of oil refiners, went down to an average of $68 per barrel as of Oct. 29, from $95.90 per barrel in September.
Gasoline in Mean of Platts Singapore (MOPS), the pricing gauge used by oil importers, went down to $81 per barrel as of Oct. 29, from $107.10 per barrel average last month.
LPG contract prices also dropped to $90 per metric ton in October from $121.04 in September.
Yesterday’s rollback was the fourth for October. Gasoline and diesel prices have gone down by a total of P15.50 and P16.50 per liter, respectively, since August.
Eastern Petroleum chairman Fernando Martinez said the rollback was the 15th since July 31.
With the latest rollback, Eastern Petroleum’s diesel product now costs P39.50 per liter from P44.50 for PUJs and P40.50 for the regular diesel lane.
Its gasoline is now priced at P45.50 per liter from P47.50. (More…)
Full Story: http://www.philstar.com/index.php?Headlines&p=49&type=2&sec=24&aid=20081030162
Investors Start Fishing for Aquaculture
PHILIPPINES – Consumer demand for fish is rising rapidly across China and other parts of Asia, but supply is struggling to keep apace. Now that stocks are in a dangerous state of decline investors are eyeing up the future of marine hatcheries.
According to the Inquirer, the imbalance between supply and demand has driven prices up — high enough so that many sought-after species, such as tiger grouper, humpback grouper, and tropical abalone, can now be cultivated profitably and sustainably through commercial aquaculture operations. This will also allow natural stocks time to recover.
“Following the successful establishment of the first hatchery in Tawi-Tawi province for these and other high-value species, investors are interested in establishing similar hatcheries in Mindanao”, said the Inquirer.
Establishing a fully equipped hatchery, capable of producing one million juvenile fish per year, requires an investment of approximately $500,000-$700,000 with annual operating costs of approximately $30,000-$50,000.
Combining hatchery operations with “grow-out” operations — designed to all the juvenile fish to grow to maturity — increases profit margins, Lauro Ilagan, senior aquaculture specialist of USAID’s Growth with Equity in Mindanao (GEM) Program, told the Inquirer. This, she added, has assisted investors to locate appropriate sites in Mindanao for the establishment of commercial aquaculture ventures.
In 2007, the GEM Program helped to establish a P26-million grouper and abalone hatchery in Tawi-Tawi to provide juvenile fish to growers. The hatchery was established in partnership with the Philippine Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR), the provincial government, and other partners.
The Tawi-Tawi hatchery, is the only facility of its kind in the Sulu archipelago, and is now being operated by the Zamboanga-based Mega Fishing Corporation, a deep-sea purse seine fishing company that ships its canned fish products to 22 countries.
TheFishSite News Desk
source: http://www.thefishsite.com/fishnews/7560/investors-start-fishing-for-aquaculture
Jollibee Sees Higher-Income Customers on Inflation (Update2)
By Francisco Alcuaz Jr. and Frank Longid
July 8 (Bloomberg) — Jollibee Foods Corp. Chairman Tony Tan Caktiong said the fastest inflation in 14 years is making more higher-income customers try the Philippines’ biggest fast- food chain even as lower-wage clients cut back on visits.
“Our field people joke that the clientele now are all in barong,” the formal Filipino shirt, Tan said in an interview in Manila yesterday. “I’ve started to get comments from my friends: this product is good, this needs improvement. You don’t hear these comments during good times. The higher segment is coming down.”
Jollibee, which outsells McDonald’s Corp. in the Philippines, will expand its new lower-priced restaurant unit that appeals to Filipinos made poorer as oil and rice costs boosted inflation to 11.4 percent in June. The Philippines imports almost all its oil and is the world’s biggest importer of rice.
“Inflation affects Jollibee more on the cost side than the demand side,” Jojo Gonzales, head of research at Philippine Equity Partners Inc. in Manila, said in a phone interview today. “Some people are slipping into their market. Some are falling downmarket but they hope not to lose those by offering more value meals and Manong Pepe,” the lower-priced chain Jollibee started last year.
Chowking, Yonghe King
The company’s seven brands, including Jollibee, Chowking and Red Ribbon, had 1,639 outlets as of March, 179 of them in the U.S., the United Arab Emirates, China and other overseas locations. Tan led the purchase of restaurant chains, including Shanghai-based Yonghe King. The acquisition of Beijing-based Hongzhuangyuan will add another 33 stores to the company’s network.
Jollibee shares rose 1.5 percent, matching the gains of the benchmark Philippine Stock Exchange Index, to close at 34 pesos in Manila trading. Today’s climb trimmed the food retailer’s loss this year to 35 percent.
Quickening inflation prompted the government to cut its economic growth estimate half a percentage point in May to a range of 5.7 percent to 6.5 percent. The economy expanded 7.2 percent last year, the fastest in 30 years. Price increases will accelerate further in the third quarter, Central Bank Governor Amando Tetangco said July 4.
Jollibee’s sales growth will slow from last year’s 13 percent because of oil and rice prices, Chief Financial Officer Ysmael Baysa said June 27. The company is raising prices as much as 2 percent every two months, which won’t “shock consumers,” Baysa said. It’s cutting costs by using electric fans and energy-saving devices to reduce power consumption.
The company will probably scale back its plan to almost triple capital spending to 6 billion pesos ($131 million) this year from 2.06 billion pesos last year, Tan said. It will probably delay its plan to expand three commissaries.
“Two-thousand-and-seven was a very good economic recovery,” Baysa said. “Based on that recovery we would run out of production capacity sooner than we expected so we tried to accelerate” expansion. “Now volume is not as strong again so in a way we’re going back to the original plan,” he said.
To contact the reporter on this story: Francisco Alcuaz Jr. in Manila at falcuaz@bloomberg.net
source: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601080&sid=ai2H20v6jbm4
Shoe industry flattened by globalization, ‘ukay-ukay’
The Philippine footwear industry is being flattened by uncontrolled liberalization, smuggling, swarming of “ukay-ukay” (imported used clothes and shoes) and the proliferation of fakes.
Joel Gaudia, public relations officer of the Samahan ng mga Magsasapatos sa Pilipinas, said its membership has dwindled to 125 from 4,000 in 1994 before tariff walls were dismantled.
Tariffs are now at 15 percent from non-Asean countries and 7 to 10 percent from Asean from 45 percent in 1994.
Gaudia said the Philippines used to produce millions of pairs of shoes enough to shod the country, about 10 million pairs in 1994.
Today, he said the industry produces less than 5 million pairs of shoes which serves just 10 percent of the national requirement.
About 80 percent is served by imports from China, which accounts for 40 percent of total imports.
Gaudia said an indication of just how little we produce is that SM Group alone sells 21 million pairs a year.
He said the number of employes in footwear, including those employed by the 21 allied sectors – from tannery to molding to adhesive producers – has dropped drastically to 5,000 from 300,000 in the 1980s to the 1990s.
Prior to liberalization, Gaudia said, local footwear makers subcontracting for multinationals were into exports. In 1997, these companies shipped 21 million pairs worth $193 million.
“There was a huge potential for the industry,” Gaudia said.
He said today, exports have diminished, limited only to those, which invested here for export like Tretorn in Bataan catering to the European market.
The likes of Puma, Rubberworld, which was the manufacturer for Adidas, and Kaypee, have long ceased operations, Gaudia said.
Gaudia said aside from lower tariffs, the shift in the valuation of imports has also encouraged a lot of technical smuggling with the market instantly flooded by imports from China where production is subsidized and energy costs are cheaper.
According to Gaudia, 70 percent of the regular members folded up and those, which remained, downsized their operations and retrenched workers.
A lot of them are tolling for big department stores and retailers for their in-house brands.
Gaudia said the sprouting of ukay-ukay stores in many cities also dampened demand for locally made shoes that even the players in Binan, Nueva Ecija, Bicol and Cebu are being squeezed.
“It is difficult to compete when technical smuggling is prevalent and when we have ukay ukay stores and tiangge selling fake products,” he said.
Gaudia cited, as example is the undervaluation of military boots coming from China. These are valued at just $5 or about P230 per pair but are sold at over a P1, 000 in the local market.
In Baclaran, fake Bally shoes are retailed at P400 a pair when the cheapest original pair is about P3, 000.
source: http://fairtradealliance.org/?p=307
<!– –>
