Monthly Archives: July 2009

MANILA, Philippines – The Congressional Planning and Budget Department (CPBD), the think-tank of the House of Representatives, has cut its economic growth forecast for 2009 on the back of the lower-than-expected growth in the first quarter of the year and despite expectations that the economy grew faster in the second quarter.

MANILA, Philippines – The Department of Finance (DOF) is opposing the creation of more economic zones, saying that tax incentives given to businesses registered in these areas are too generous and would severely affect government revenues.

Trade Union Congress Party-List (TUCP) Representative Raymond D. C. Mendoza yesterday called on Pilipinas Shell, Chevron Philippines Inc. and Petron Corp. for a swift rollback on its oil price following Unioil’s biggest price-cut of P4.75 per liter of gasoline by 2:01 p.m. on Monday.

THE Federal Reserve signalled overnight it sees an end this year to the brutal recession and hinted that it was preparing an “exit strategy” for its unprecedented stimulus efforts.

MANILA, Philippines – The Department of Agriculture (DA) and Nestlé Philippines Inc. (NPI) have signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) that puts together their expertise and resources to further strengthen the country’s coffee industry.

MANILA, Philippines – The local stock market has bucked the worldwide economic crisis as foreign funds, impressed by the the Philippine economy’s resiliency, have started to trickle back with net foreign buying hitting P7.6 billion in the first half this year, a reversal of the P18.82 billion in net foreign selling during the same period…

MANILA, Philippines – A majority of Filipino adults remained dissatisfied with the performance of President Arroyo, the Social Weather Stations (SWS) reported yesterday.

JAPANESE banana imports are headed for a second straight record gain this year, fueled by fad diets and households looking for cheap food amid the recession.

FILIPINOS working abroad sent more money home in May as more of them found jobs as nurses, sailors and housekeepers.

http://ofwonline.ateneo.edu/index.php?option=com_jumi&fileid=3 MANILA, Philippines—Overseas Filipino workers having problems coping with the isolation may now get free online counseling from the Ateneo De Manila University.

MANILA, Philippines—After 20 years, the Real Estate Service Act (RESA) was signed into law by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo on June 29.

GARDEN CITY, NEW YORK—The discrimination claims filed by 26 Filipino nurses and physical therapists in New York have been rejected by a US federal judge.

No doubt the signing of the new rent control law has made a lot of Filipino home renters sigh with relief. Aside from the one-year moratorium, RA 9653 or the Rent Control Act of 2009 limits to seven percent the increase on units being rented at P10,000 until 2013. The law will primarily benefit those…

The European Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines (ECCP) tapped its European IT Service Center Foundation (EITSC) to open a Dual Training System (DTS) program by entering into a new set of public-private partnership.

Foreign professionals entering the country will now be closely monitored by the Bureau of Immigration (BI) to ensure they do not prejudice the interest of their Filipino counterparts.

More or fewer than 16,000 bus drivers and conductors stand to loose their jobs after the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) announced that there is no stopping the full implementation of the bus reduction scheme along Edsa.

As the global economic slowdown takes its toll on businesses, more small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the US have begun outsourcing their back office processes to cut costs, an official of a local contact center association said.

SIX Philippine products, including the country’s century-old export, abaca hemp, will enjoy duty-free access to the American market under the US Generalized System of Preferences (GSP), the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) said on Wednesday.

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Remittances from overseas Filipinos reached a record high in May, fed by the need of families or beneficiaries of migrant workers to pay for school expenses.

Global climate change is “very likely” to have a human cause, an influential group of scientists has concluded.

Mar Roxas: Don’t price the Philippines out of the market Call centers may have increased their employees’ salaries too much too soon in the last 5 years that the practice may become “unsustainable” despite the the double digit growth that the industry is expected to post this year.

The Contact Center Association of the Philippines (CCAP) is the official organization of contact centers in the country. It was established in October 2001 by seven founding member companies and now counts among its members 56 of outsource and in-house contact centers, representing more than two-thirds of call center seats nationwide.

WASHINGTON (AFP) – The International Monetary Fund on Wednesday said that Japan would likely wrestle with deflation through 2011 as it struggles to recover from severe recession.

The US economy will sink at a slower pace than previously thought in 2009, thanks to a rebound in the second half of the year, the Federal Reserve says.

“METRO LAGUNA” is being tapped and promoted by the Commission on Information and Communications Technology (CICT) and aligned agencies to be the next business hub where IT and business process outsourcing companies (BPOs) can thrive.

MANILA, Philippines – Senator Manuel “Mar” Roxas III wants to see more mergers and acquisitions in the local call center industry to widen flow of capital investments.

The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) today clarified that it was not giving P75,000 to victims of the A(H1N1) virus contrary to what the public may have thought.

Professor Randy David might be in for a big surprise if he makes good his threat to run for in the second congressional district of Pampanga, whether his opponent would be President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo or presidential son and incumbent Rep. Mikey Arroyo.

Last Monday I wrote about the current initiative being pushed at the House of Representatives —a bill to amend the Labor Code. The proposed amendments, however, are objectionable because they are restrictive. Instead of building a nurturing business climate that would in turn create more opportunities for employment, the proposed amendments seek to clamp down…