Investments in the Philippines surge to 338% to ₱ 191 Billion in first 2-Q 2011

Investment commitments went up by 338 percent to ₱ 191.182 billion in the first five months of the year from a year ago level of P43.613 billion as more investments for energy projects continued to pour into the country, the Board of Investments (BOI) reported reported June 15, 2011.

The BOI also approved 117 projects during the period, up from 65 a year ago.

These projects are expected to create employment for 24,337 workers, up 188 percent from 8,465 jobs created in January to May last 2010.

"We grew in all aspects," BOI executive director Lucita P. Reyes said of the first five months performance of the agency.

Reyes said that 39 percent of the total approvals from the period came from energy projects.

The single biggest project was that of Petron Corp, the country's largest oil refinery. Petron will invest ₱74.78 billion for the full conversion of its Limay refinery to a cleaner white oil.

Reyes said Petron will upgrade its existing refinery into full conversion oil refinery to convert fuel oil to white oil. She explained this will make the firm Euro 4 compliant one year ahead of the imposed schedule.

The by products like petro feedstock will be sold to plastic producers or propylene as raw materials for polymer plastics

Reyes said Petron's investment will create 165 jobs in addition to the existing regular employees to support additional processes. The implementation will begin July 2015. The project is registered as downstream industry in the Deregulation Industries Act that is why the BOI granted the project a five year ITH.

There were four other wind power projects registered under the Renewable Energy Law.

After energy, the second biggest sector was the low cost mass housing sector. SM Development Corp. (SMDC) was the largest developer of mass housing projects followed by Filinvest Land and DMCI. SMDC has invested P7.8 billion for its big ticket mass housing projects

Under the infrastructure project one of the big investments was the ₱1.9 billion project of Boracay Island Water. This project is a joint venture project of the Tourism Infrastructure and Enterprise Zone Authority (TIEZA) and the Manila Water.

Reyes said there is a concession agreement between the two parties to improve the water system in the island and likewise construct a better sewerage system for the tourist spot.

 "This investment is necessary because the problem of Boracay is the sewerage and the water. This can solve a lot of problems," Reyes said.

Reyes said they only registered one mining firm for the period which is the ₱ 2.05 billion project Citinickel Mines and Development Corp. in Barangay Narra Palawan.

Citinickel holds the mineral production sharing agreement that covers the 2,200-hectare sprawling nickel-rich mining concession in the towns of Narra and Sofronio in Palawan.

The mining project features development and operations limited to waste stripping, ore extraction, loading, and shipment as well as construction, rehabilitation and improvement of mine haul and access roads.

It also includes construction and operations of mine structures and support facilities, such as stockyards, equipment yard and office, camp site and assay and drainage systems, waste dump areas, settling ponds and other silt and erosion control infrastructures.

 

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OFW Dollar inflows up 6% to $ 6.2 Billon in first 4 months of 2011

Philippines – Remittances from overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) climbed six percent in the first four months of the year after recovering from a steady slowdown since November last year on the back of strong demand for skilled Filipino workers, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) reported yesterday.

BSP Governor Amando M. Tetangco Jr. said that remittances from OFWs reached $6.21 billion during the first four months of the year or $350 million higher than the $5.86 billion recorded in the same period last year.

Tetangco said major sources of remittances in the first four months of the year were the US, Canada, Saudi Arabia, United Kingdom, Japan, Singapore, United Arab Emirates, and Italy.

The year-on-year growth in OFW remittances slowed down for four straight months after posting a 10.5 percent growth in November; 8.1 percent in December; 7.6 percent in January; 6.2 percent in February, and 4.1 percent in March due to disruptions caused by the tensions in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) states as well as the disasters in Japan.

The monthly growth recorded in March was the slowest since August 2009 when remittances posted a monthly growth of 2.8 percent.

However, remittance growth finally improved to 6.3 percent to $1.615 billion in April from $1.52 billion in the same month last year.

Tetangco reported that remittances from sea-based OFWs jumped 12.2 percent while remittances from land-based workers increased by 4.4 percent due to the steady demand for skilled Filipino workers as well as the expanding remittance centers abroad.

“Remittance flows continued to draw support from the steady overseas demand for Filipino skills and expertise and the continuing efforts of banks and other financial institutions to extensively promote and improve upon the financial products and services they offer in the remittance market,” the BSP chief stressed.

Data obtained from the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) indicated that demand for Filipino workers abroad remained strong as job orders reached 269,386 in the first five months of the year of which 32 percent or 86,300 were already processed while 68 percent or 183,086 are still to be filled up.

The job orders were intended for the manpower requirements in Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar, Kuwait, Taiwan and Hong Kong, among other countries.

Moreover, the POEA also reported that new rules have been issued to strengthen the Temporary Foreign Workers Program (TFWP) in Canada effective April 1 to better protect foreign workers and maintain the Canadian government’s focus on alleviating temporary labor shortages.

Tetangco added that banks and other financial institutions have also been actively introducing innovative remittance products by adding a remittance feature to credit cards which was recently introduced in the market.

The new innovations provide reliable services to enable OFWs to transfer money swiftly and securely to relatives back home.

“These initiatives are expected to encourage the use of the formal channels to capture a bigger share of the global remittance market,” he explained

 

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Employment rate of the Philippines improves to 7.2% in April 2011

In effect of the Invest commitments surge 338% to P191 billion in January-May, Favorable weather and improved economic conditions pulled down the number of jobless people nationwide, the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) reported Wednesday (June 15, 2011)

Labor Undersecretary Danilo Cruz said results of the latest Labor Force Survey of the National Statistics Office (NSO) indicated that the number of unemployed in April dropped to 2.9 million compared to the same period last year.

“Unemployment level in the country went down from eight percent to 7.2 percent which means the number of jobless in April was 228,000 fewer compared to last year so this is really a very positive development,” Cruz said.

He attributed the decline in the unemployment level to good weather condition that boosted the agricultural sector, which posted a 5.6-percent growth this year.

Last year, Cruz said the country experienced severe typhoons and droughts triggering a slump in the employment rate in the agriculture sector, the second largest industry group.

“After suffering from severe weather last year, our agriculture sector’s condition has greatly improved as seen by very good harvest. In fact the agricultural sector posted a record high output,” Cruz explained.

He further noted that almost all the sectors, including manufacturing, recorded positive employment growth this year, thus boosting the country employment rate.

The same NSO survey also showed that the employment rate in April increased from 92 percent to 92.8 percent with the Zamboanga Peninsula recording the highest employment rate.

“Based on the NSO survey, we have an additional 1.4 million newly employed persons this year, indicating that we are able to achieve our target and that many of the new entrants to the labor force were able to find employment,” he said.

Other labor officials said they were previously expecting a slowdown in the services sectors but it surprisingly sustained growth, thus helping in increasing the employment level.

 Out of the 61.8 million people 15 years old and over, about 39.7 million were in the labor force. The bulk of the employed were in the services sector.

The employment growth in April also showed that workers are starting to feel the impact of the government’s emergency and other employment promotion programs.

 

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