Fluor Fortune 500 Global Company lauds Filipino Engineers’ diversity & World class quality

Daniel Spinks, Fluor Philippines country manager said that the Filipino work ethic plus their proficiency in English  makes it easy for the company to  deploy staff to any of their projects worldwide.

Int'l firm strikes gold in local engineers

For Fluor Philippines, a unit of international engineering firm Fluor Daniel, Inc., its pool of Filipino talent makes it very competitive in the global market.

Daniel Spinks, Fluor Philippines country manager said that the Filipino work ethic plus their proficiency in English  makes it easy for the company to  deploy staff to any of their projects worldwide.

"An English-speaking community, they can communicate well with others , working with a lot of Fluor offices around the world," said Spinks.

"They have a positive attitude. Used to working overseas a lot, they're are used to being mobile and find it easy to work with different cultures. They can adapt to a diverse kind of culture at work. And the big advantage is the very cost-competitive portion," also said Spinks who concurrently serves as manager for Fluor's operations in Singapore and Malaysia.

The Philippine operation of currently employs 2,250 people in its sites in Manila and Cebu, the third largest office of the FORTUNE 500 firm found in 75 locations.

"As a percentage, it's around 5 percent of Fluor population that's located here in the Philippines," said Spinks.

Fluor seeks to increase this number further as the company works to expand its business globally, said Spinks who was an Asia CEO Awardee as Expatriate Executive of the year for 2012.

Spinks said Fluor Philippines could hit 3,000 in a couple of years as work demand requires.

"It could get as big as it needs to support our business. Our company wants to double our sales in the next eight years. Our CEO wants to double the size of Fluor globally.  We double the size of Fluor, we double the size of the Philippines. I think 3,000 is a realistic target," he said.

"Because this office is very competitive, it makes us more competitive globally. And we had been here for 25 years now, we have a good base of people, experienced of people that understand our work practice through our work processes. It's easy for us to scale up the size of this office, and if you're going to grow, you usually want to grow in your most competitive location," added Spinks.

"I think as our business grows, we're going to put more emphasis on doing more of the engineering and design here and because of you'll see this one become one of the largest office, if not the largest," Spinks also said.

Fluor's Philippine operation is responsible for providing full services to the Asia Pacific region, doing all kinds of engineering for all various projects, from refinery to off-shore developments, mining and metals, chemicals, and others.

In the Philippines it is currently engaged in the third phase of the Malampaya gas-to-power project, which involves design, fabrication and installation of a new depletion compression platform linked by a bridge to the existing shallow water platform.

In the past it was responsible for the design of Enron Power Corp.'s coal-fired power plant in Batangas and Procter & Gamble's Cabuyao facility in Laguna.

"We do engineering here, and we have all type of engineers --- chemicals, electrical, civil, mechanical, and architectural. So we provide services to all projects to the Philippines and in Asia, and also to projects all over the world. We work with other Fluor office around the world and we provide those same services to those same offices, to make us competitive on a global market," Spinks said.

Among the projects Fluor Philippines is getting busy with is the design of an LNG terminal in Singapore, as well as a solar-panel manufacturing project.

Fluor is also working for the completion of a pre-fabrication facility it is constructing in partnership with local firm AG&P. Upon completion, the pre-fab facility will be able to produce up to 20 million metric ton of construction material, employing 2,000 construction workers, which will be used by the firm in all its projects.

This will be the first time that Fluor's local operation will export an actual product, compared to its usual service-based business.

Starting from just a 25-man team in 1987 when it was first established, Fluor has become one of the leading support to the company's global operations.

With the establishment of the Singapore and Malaysia office, Fluor Philippines has become responsible in providing support to the Singapore and Malaysian operations.

"We do all the engineering here, all they do is sell it over there. That's more a sales and business development office. What I call as the  heavy lifting are done over here, the big stuff, and they will just have more the interfacing with the customers and some of the smaller stuff there on the front end," according to Spinks. (http://is.gd/WsyUpC)

Malaya Business Insights 

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Philippines' DOST - Craft BILL- Space Agency for Billion Dollars Spaceship, Rockets

Galactic Pinoy? Scientists push for independent  Philippines Space Agency (PSA)

We've yet to see the first Pinoy astronaut in space, though plans toward this goal have been in the works since the 1990s. In the meantime, scientists and astronomy advocates recently joined efforts to push for the establishment of our very own space agency.

Department of Science and Technology's (DOST) Balik Scientist Dr. Custer Deocaris, organized a press briefing at Annabel's Restaurant in Quezon City on Dec. 14.

Deocaris believes that, since the government has now increased its funding for the DOST, citing initiatives like Project NOAH and DREAM Project, it's high time that the goverment should invest in an independent space agency, like NASA.

"Kung hindi ngayon, mahihirapan na tayong iangat ang Philippine Space Agency," said Deocaris.

The proposed space agency intends to conduct studies on space science and technologies, design, and develop satellites that will be launched in space, and possibly train astronauts, according to the draft bill on the  Philippine Space Agency.

In Southeast Asia, at least five countries have their own space agencies like Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam, and Thailand. See the list of countries with Space Agencies

But Dr. Edgardo Aban of the University of Brunei Darussalam said during the press conference that the initiative for space studies in the Philippines started way back in the '90s.

"One of our landmark achievements [is the] 1995-1996 partnership project with NASA. We had a synthetic altitude radar that aim to map portions of the Philippines using radar."

By 2005, Aban was also a part of a team that studied the space technologies and application capabilities of the Philippines in terms of human resource, technology and infrastructure.

However, as Aban recalled, those moves turned out to be unsuccessful.

Deocaris also said that his group sent AGHAM Party List representative Angelo Palmones the draft bill.

"We should not forget that most of today's modern conveniences (cellphone, internet, cloud computing, etc.) are spin-offs from investments in space technology," Deocaris wrote in his letter to the congressman.

"[The] time has now come to open the possibility of creating an ambitious but doable dream: a space program for Filipinos," he added.

Meanwhile, Aban estimated that a Pinoy space agency would cost at least $1 billion (P41 billion)( http://is.gd/JYX3DT)

GMA News

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Philippines signed RA 10349 Armed Forces modernization law for further 15 years

Philippine President Benigno Aquino signed Republic Act No. 10349 into law on 11 December measures extending the modernization of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) for a further 15 years and the allocation of ₱75 billion ($1.8 billion USD) for defense procurement over the next five years.

The legislation, Republic Act (RA) No. 10349, also formally establishes processes that are geared to accelerate the AFP's acquisition of materiel by enhancing the efficiency and accountability of military procurement practices.

A presidential statement made reference to the rationale behind the move to bolster military capability, and the AFP's transition in recent years from a force focused on tackling internal threats - particularly insurgency - to one increasingly absorbed by a perceived requirement to secure off-shore territory.

The statement said the passing of the revised AFP Modernization Act will "further upgrade the AFP's defense capabilities for the country's protection and security". It added that the funding provided by the act will "boost the AFP's Capability Upgrade Program [CUP] as it shifts from internal to external defense capability".

The revised legislation also enables the military modernization effort to be boosted further by the proceeds of leasing military-owned land not considered vital to the Department of National Defense.

But even before the law is implemented, the Commission on Audit, in its 2011 annual report, disclosed that a total of ₱72.5 million worth of military combat clothing procured by the Philippine Air Force has remained undelivered by the Procurement Service of the Department of Budget and Management

The undelivered items include combat and rubber shoes, flight suits, and mattresses.  ₱21.4 million worth of these items remain undelivered since 2008.The COA explained that ₱21.4 million worth of combat clothing was undelivered in 2010, while ₱51.1 million worth was undelivered in the following year.

Mr. Aquino, meanwhile, said the new law will help boost the Armed Forced of the Philippines' capability upgrade program.

"This ensures that our Armed Forces will be able to keep up with the modern times.  This will boost the AFP's capability upgrade program as it shifts from internal to external defense capability," Mr. Aquino said.

"Security threats have changed: as the number of rebels goes down, we have to focus more on terrorist threats. We are facing new challenges such as territorial disputes with bigger countries in the region," the President added.

The Philippines has been engaged in heightened tensions with China the entire year over conflicting claims in the South China Sea.

"This new law ushers in a more modern, more reliable and stronger AFP. Our military is marching forward to protect our people and fight threats to our sovereignty," Mr. Aquino said.

Under the new measure, the AFP modernization program will have a ₱75 billion budget for the first five years.

The measure exempts from the requirement of public bidding certain major defense purchases such as aircraft, vessels, tanks, armored vehicles, communications equipment and high powered firearms.

The new law also grants additional funding sources from public-private partnerships entered into by the defense department of the AFP.

It also allows multi-year contracts and exempts from value added tax and customs duties the sale of weapons, equipment, and ammunition to the AFP.

AFP planners had identified 39 projects to be covered by the revised modernization program.

The Air Force will acquire 21 additional UH-1B multipurpose helicopters to replace the Vietnam War-vintage UH-1H (Huey) helicopters and 10 attack helicopters in the next two years.

The modernization program would also include the purchase of three medium-lift aircraft to complement the Air Force's C-130 Hercules cargo planes.

Senator Antonio Trillanes IV expressed his gratitude to the President for signing the new law, saying the modernization law would boost the military's capability to deal with national security threats.

Trillanes is the co-principal author of the new AFP Modernization Law in the Senate, along with Senator Panfilo Lacson.

"The AFP is the protector of the people of the State. It is hoped that through this law, the AFP will be able to fulfill its mandate," Trillanes said. (http://is.gd/cKrir1)

Manila Standard Today

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