Monthly Archives: March 2009

London (AFP) – World Bank president Robert Zoellick said Friday that 2009 was turning into “a very dangerous year” for the economy but warned G20 members against protectionist policies to fight the downturn.

MANILA, Philippines – The Makati Business Club (MBC), the country’s most powerful business organization, announced they are not in favor of mandating all contractors to strictly use locally made products for the infrastructure projects under the government’s pump priming program.

MANILA, Philippines – The accumulated bad loans of commercial banks continued to drop throughout 2008, ending the year with the total amount falling to 3.52 percent of the industry’s total loan portfolio.

MANILA, Philippines – Economic officials said the P40-billion recapitalization of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) could still be included in the stimulus plan if planners would agree to raise the deficit ceiling this year.

We all know we’re right smack in the middle of a global crisis because everyone has been making references to it nonstop—it’s practically coming out of people’s ears. Of course we’ve also become aware of the crisis because contrary to what some so-called experts so brazenly claim, we’re not deaf and blind. And we’re definitely…

MANILA, Philippines – With the end of the school year, Cora Villanueva, human resources director of Shakey’s, is gearing up for the influx of job applications from recent graduates who will apply for vacant positions at Shakey’s, considered one of the country’s preferred employers.

EVERSING its privatization policy, the government is taking majority control of Metro Rail Transit Corp. to give itself leeway in expanding the passenger capacity of the Metro Rail Transit 3 on Edsa, an official said yesterday.

HORSHAM, England: G20 finance ministers vowed Saturday to take “whatever action is necessary” on the world economic slowdown, after talks preparing for a key summit on fighting the crisis next month.

Worldwide sales of hi-tech “smartphones” grew at their slowest pace yet in the fourth quarter of 2008 as the financial crisis hit demand, a research firm said.

UNIVERSAL and commercial banks registered a modest improvement in their bad loan ratio last year, dropping to its lowest since the ratio peaked in 2001, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) said.

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) now estimates the effects of the global downturn on the local economy to last at most one and a half years more, which was longer than its initial estimates.

PRESIDENT Arroyo has ordered all government agencies to save money so they can set aside P7 billion to hire 180,000 people displaced by the global financial crisis.

MANILA, Philippines – Malacañang yesterday renewed President Arroyo’s call on government agencies to tighten their belts and use their savings to provide emergency employment to the poor to help tide them over in the coming months.

This is a story told by someone who shall remain anonymous to protect both him and the institution he heads.

THE United Nations (UN), and not the G20, should lead in creating a new financial architecture that would rise out of the current economic crisis, University of the Philippines Prof. Walden Bello said Saturday.

LOCAL gaming development is getting second-mention next to Singapore, and Filipino talents are drawing in clients.

METRO Laguna and Metro Cavite are the next top destinations for call center sites.

AMID worldwide gloom and doom, local call centers are upbeat this year and for the following years when they expect to corner 10 percent of the $130-billion global market by 2010.

MANILA, Philippines – Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) officials said a double-digit growth in remittances from overseas Filipinos is still possible in the first two months of the year, especially if the robust growth in labor export could be sustained for the rest of the year.

WE OFTEN HEAR IT SAID THAT we in the Philippines have no lack of good plans, programs, policies and laws, but our problem lies in enforcement and implementation. For example, we pride ourselves as being among the first in the world to have formulated a national strategy for sustainable development after the 1992 Rio Earth…

BAGUIO, Philippines — Officials of Mankayan town in Benguet province urged the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) on Saturday to crack the whip against the country’s biggest gold producer for throwing hazardous substances into the town’s dump.

MANILA, Philippines – Hot money fled the country last month as the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) reported a net outflow of $199 million in foreign portfolio investments, reflecting more caution among investors amid a deepening global slowdown.

MANILA, Philippines – Senators maintained there are enough safeguards in the Poll Automation Law against cheating and that doomsayers should just help the Commission on Elections carry out a successful computerized elections in 2010.

MANILA, Philippine — Workers in the business process outsourcing (BPO) sector are assured of stable wages this year, even amid the global recession, but they should not expect salaries to increase much, an industry leader said.

‘No dislocation of gov’t workers’ MANILA, Philippines — President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo said “no one shall be dislocated” in the government workforce when a rationalization program is implemented.

MANILA, Philippines — Overseas Filipino workers should follow safe sex methods as a United Nations study revealed that Filipina workers employed in the Arab region face a high risk of being infected with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) which causes AIDS Or Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome, a recruitment consultant said Saturday.

Good manufacturing jobs helped create the middle class in the 20th century. Good green jobs could play the same role in the 21st century. And the union movement is poised to lead the charge to clean up our environment and create good jobs.

FILIPINOS remain pessimistic in the first quarter as concerns over unemployment and low incomes outweighed the easing of inflation, according to a Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) survey.

Filed Under: Healthcare Providers, Health, Health organisations HEALTH care cost maybe one of the least priorities for most people who are facing an economy marred by news of ongoing layoffs and retrenchments, slimming profit margins and decreasing export volumes.

90,000 new jobs expected CLARK FREEPORT, Philippines — The information technology and business processing outsourcing (BPO) industry in the Philippines is expected to grow 20-25 percent this year and can hire 80,000-90,000 employees, the chairman of the Commission on Information and Communication Technology (CICT) said.