Monthly Archives: October 2012

For many businesses, a call center is the primary means of communication with customers. You cannot shake hands when greeting them or see their facial expressions to understand their mood or temperament.

MANILA, Philippines – More poor but deserving students have found temporary employment and earned money to pay for their education, the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) reported yesterday. Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz said a total of 137,833 poor students were hired in various public and government companies in the first eight months of the…

BUKIDNON, Philippines – The child labor issue in this province is being aggressively addressed, thanks to a new code that was recently formulated.

(Updated 1:45 p.m.) In a rare and caustic breach of intercollegiate collegiality, the University of Santo Tomas’ student publication, The Varsitarian, attacked in an editorial two other elite Catholic universities, Ateneo de Manila and De La Salle, for their professors’ support of the Reproductive Health bill, and for the tolerance of their administrators towards their…

In October, the government and the country’s largest Moro rebel group agreed a deal to end a 40-year conflict that has killed more than 120,000 and displaced 2 million. President Benigno Aquino hopes this will pave the way for economic growth and development in the south, a poor region but one that sits on considerable…

(Financial Times) — The US is the brightest spot in the world economy, as another global recession threatens, according to the latest Brookings Institution-Financial Times tracking index.

HONG KONG (CNNMoney) — The World Bank lowered its growth outlook for Asia on Monday, and warned that a major unraveling in Europe could knock 2% off Asia’s GDP growth next year.

THE World Bank said policy-makers in Asia’s emerging economies have room to ease monetary and fiscal policies as China’s slowdown drags the region’s growth to an estimated 11-year low this year.

ANOTHER multilateral institution has raised its Philippine growth forecast amid global uncertainties that have prompted reduced estimates for the region. Rural projects identifiedWorld Bank raises Philippine growth outlook for 2012Job creation should focus on dev’t payoffsIMF, WB seen tackling pressing issuesOxford Business Group — Charles Colon: “Mobile market growth in the Philippines”

The Philippines should not rely solely on economic zones to attract investments, but improve its business environment outside of these areas as well, the World Bank said. In the latest issue of the Philippine Quarterly Update, its magazine on the country’s latest economic and social trends, the WB said improving the Philippines’ overall business environment…

The Philippine business climate is getting a boost from Japan, which extended a $100-million Official Development Assistance (ODA) loan last Friday. Japanese Ambassador Toshinao Urabe and Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert del Rosario signed and exchanged notes on the ODA last Friday in Manila.

The government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) have agreed on a framework agreement that would pave the way for a “final enduring peace” in Mindanao that would end the cycle of violence and poverty in that region, President Aquino announced on Sunday.

MANILA, Philippines- Foreign palm oil plantations in the Philippines are accused of employing and exploiting child laborers. The Manila based Center for Trade Union and Human Rights (CTHUR) last presented to the public the findings of its research on child labor in oil palm plantations in Caraga which revealed that 24% of workers in the…

MANILA, Philippines – President Aquino has approved the revised implementing rules of Executive Order (EO) 79 earlier submitted by the Mining Industry Coordinating Council (MICC) in response to concerns raised by stakeholders on the original regulations issued by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR).

MANILA, Philippines (Xinhua) – Youth unemployment in the Philippines is “alarmingly high” at 17 percent or more than double the national average, according to the latest data of the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE).

MANILA, Philippines — Minimum wage earners in Region VIII will get a P7.00 Cost of Living Allowance (COLA) in their daily wage rate which will be effective on October 16. This is according to the National Wages and Productivity Commission (NWPC) website.

Teachers face severe challenges in different parts of the world and are still under pressure to produce results. As the profession marks World Teachers Day, two teachers working thousands of miles apart tell their stories.

CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY, Philippines — The Philippines is among the countries with the fastest growing populations that are extremely vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, according to the latest release of Maplecroft’s Climate Change and Environment Risk Atlas.

TAGBILARAN CITY, Bohol, Oct 4 (PIA) — Information communication technology (ICT) workers fear possible setbacks in the country’s global ICT sector when the school system adopted the use of the “mother tongue” in education.

MANILA, Philippines – Around 272 more Filipinos tested positive for the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) in August, Department of Health data showed. The DOH’s National Epidemiology Center said this marked a 39 percent increase from the 196 detected in the same month in 2011.

Ambassador Harry K. Thomas has urged Congress to do its bit to work on Philippine laws that restrict foreign ownership of land and pave the way for the inflow of investments into the country. He said the restriction is one of the several reasons American investors shy away from doing business in the Philippines.

BUDAPEST – The world economic crisis could take 10 years to run its course, the IMF’s chief economist Olivier Blanchard told Hungarian business news site Portfolio.hu in an interview published on Wednesday.

The Asian Development Bank made an upward revision in its 2012 economic growth forecast for the Philippines, to 5.5 percent from its earlier projection of 4.8 percent due to the economy’s strong first half performance.

The ILO Director-General calls for urgent action to make teaching an attractive career once again. GENEVA (ILO News) – The economic crisis has strongly affected working conditions and salaries for many teachers, said ILO Director-General Guy Ryder in a statement issued ahead of World Teachers Day.

Data presented at a G20 meeting in Geneva shows that youth unemployment rates remain alarming, ranging from about 8 per cent to over 50 per cent in 17 of the 20 member countries. The G20 Task Force on Employment agreed to promote quality apprenticeships.

In an interview with The Times newspaper, the head of ILO warned that austerity measures in southern European countries risk having “quite harmful consequences”. He was more positive about the outlook in Britain.

Looking back at the past 50 years, how do we assess the status of women in this country, particularly in light of recent debates on the reproductive health (RH) bill? While women make up over half of the population and their contribution to society has clearly been incalculable, a disparity remains between the fulfillment of…

The Philippine economy is in a sound position today in part because of the steady growth and size of remittances of OFWs (overseas Filipino workers) to the country. The volume of these remittances has continually grown over time as more and more Filipino workers have found jobs abroad.

TAX BREAKS granted to the remittance industry are worth the loss in government revenues since they encourage savings and investments among migrant workers, the National Tax Research Center (NTRC) said.

MULTINATIONAL financial services firm Citi sees the Philippines’ gross domestic product (GDP) growing by 5 percent to 5.3 percent, which is as at the low end of the government’s target, this year.