|
|
| Salceda says PGMA's economic record better than predecessors' |
|
The Philippines’ gross domestic product (GDP), the measure of its overall
economic performance, has posted an average of 4.4 percent growth annually
during the nine-year term of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, better than
the yearly average recorded by her four immediate predecessors. A comprehensive briefing held in Malacanang today by Albay Governor Jose Salceda with some 70 representatives of major industry and business groups in attendance indicated that President Arroyo did better than her predecessors in terms of various economic indices, which economic planners utilize to project the annual GDP. The economic indices cited by Salceda in neatly arranged statistics include gross international reserves (GIR), fiscal performance and reforms, foreign debt, credit ratings, tourism arrivals and revenues, foreign direct investments (FDI), cyber industry figures, and even the revenues and income performance of the country’s top 1,000 corporations. “Better than others, better than the previous, better than expected and better in 2010”, Salceda stressed in his 100-page briefing at the Bahay Pangarap in Malacanang attended by the President, Trade and Industry Secretary Peter Favila, and Press Secretary Cris Icban, Jr. Zeroing in on the GDP averages, Salceda said President Arroyo’s average 4.4 percent performance outshone the annual growth posted during the terms of Presidents Joseph Estrada (3.4), Fidel V. Ramos ( 3.7), Corazon Aquino (3.6) and even Ferdinand Marcos (3.8). Salceda summed up Arroyo’s economic performance by citing the following highlights: • The country’s 33 quarters of uninterrupted growth • The Philippines was one of the few countries to avoid negative growth during the global financial crisis, even securing a credit upgrade • Average growth higher than all past periods since 1966 • Average inflation lower than all past periods since 1966 • GDP grew 2.23x since 2001 in peso terms • GDP grew from $76 billion to $168 billion. • GDP / capita increased by 87 percent. • GNP / capita from $967 to $2,051 or +121 percent. • Peak growth of 8.3%
in 2Q07, the highest in 30 years, despite the drag /decrement impact of
dysfunctional politics on investments. |
|
|
| PGMA ends Cyber Corridor Tour, notes .5M BPO-ICT jobs created |
|
From a fledgling industry with only a few thousand call center egents in
2001, the BPO (business process outsourcing) and ICT (information and
communications technology) sector has become the biggest employer in the
country. To date, more than 500,000 young men and women, joined by a growing number of retirees, have found high-paying jobs in the industry. In her keynote address at the two-day 10th e-Services Global Sourcing Conference at the SMX Convention Center at the Mall of Asia in Pasay City, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo noted the country’s BPO-ICT industry, now a global powerhouse, “will exceed $9 billion in revenues this year because of the government’s vision, determination and wise policies.” The industry earned $7 billion last year. “From scratch, we created a global powerhouse after nine years,” the President told an audience composed of corporate executives, technology experts, and businessmen from the United States, China, Japan, United Kingdom, Switzerland, and Germany. The President lauded Trade Secretary Peter Favila for his foresight. It was the Cabinet secretary, she said, who urged the administration to create wealth by developing the labor-and skills-intensive ICT-BPO industry. According to the President, her administration invested P46 billion or roughly $700 million to develop what is now called the Cyber Corridor, an amount “more than thrice than that of the three previous administrations combined.” Of this, P1billion was spent to help scholars acquire English proficiency and other skills. The BPO-ICT industry, the President said, owes its success to the establishment of digital infrastructure, creation of appropriate policy and legal environment, and development of human capital by the government. It is because of the strategy adopted by the government that the Philippines was deemed the World’s Best Offshoring Destination of the Year in 2007 and UK’s National Outsourcing Association in 2009. The President added that the BPO-ICT industry has graduated to the next level. Originally confined to call center operation, the industry now offers
complex knowledge-based services such as accounting, legal and medical
transcription, animation, business administration, and software development,
among others. |
|
|
| PGMA says travel in RP now cheaper, faster, safer |
|
BATANGAS City—President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo said today (Feb. 8) that her
administration has effectively made travel around Luzon and other parts of
the country much cheaper, faster, and safer. “The government has worked hard to make the future brighter for the next generation of Filipinos,” the President told students of the University of Batangas in this city. “We created a transportation system not only in the ULB but nationwide, which binds the nation together as never before, so that people and goods can be delivered faster, cheaper and safer from one end of the nation to another,” President Arroyo told the students. In her speech, the Chief Executive gave a rundown of the progress in the government’s implementation of its flagship, Urban Luzon Beltway (ULB) erstwhile called Luzon Urban Beltway, which is designed to provide seamless travel from South Luzon to North Luzon. The ULB is one of five target growth areas called Super Regions, each given a specific development theme by the Arroyo administration. The four others are Cyber Corridor for information communication technology and business process outsourcing, North Luzon Agribusiness Quadrangle for agribusiness, Central Philippines for tourism, and Mindanao Agribusiness for agribusiness. The ULB is envisioned to transform Luzon into a globally competitive logistics and services hub in Asia-Pacific, which is seen to capture about 30 percent of the global logistics market with an estimated value of $3.5 trillion. In Asia alone, the logistics market was valued at $1 trillion. To realize this vision, the government has embarked on an ambitious program, with the private sector as partner, to develop airport and seaport infrastructure. An interconnection of four major tollroads running across the CALABARZON (Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal and Quezon), Metro Manila, and the Central Luzon form a key part of the ULB. President Arroyo pointed out that her administration pursued the vision to turn a worsening economy around when she took over the reins of government in 2001. “As an economist, I knew then that we badly needed to exercise fiscal discipline, expand the economy, and invest in human resources and physical infrastructure,” the President said. Implementation of the ULB has so far given rise to the transformation of the Batangas port into an international seaport. The facility, completed in 2007, catered to the local maritime industry, notably the roll on-roll off vessels plying the sealanes to Mindoro and other islands in the south. The Southern Luzon Arterial Road (STAR) toll way, completed in 2008, has drastically cut down travel time from Sto. Tomas town in Batangas to Batangas City by about 50 percent. President Arroyo said civil works are underway to link STAR to the South Luzon Expressway (SLEX), which runs from Calamba, Laguna, to Metro Manila. “The widened SLEX has improved traffic from Metro Manila to Calamba and back,” the President said. “It thus encourages people working in Metro Manila to take up residence in suburban Laguna.” Meanwhile, work on the artery connecting C5 to North Luzon Expressway (NLEX) is going on. Again, C5 is meant to reduce travel time between northern and southern Metro Manila by at least 30 minutes. On the other hand, NLEX cuts travel time between Metro Manila and Clark, Pampanga by about 50 percent. “All these made housing projects viable outside Metro Manila, where land is cheaper and the lifestyle more conducive to raising a family,” the President pointed out. The President said the government built about 500,000 low-cost houses under her watch, some 300,000 of them within ULB. |
|
|
| PGMA wants Star-SLEX interconnection complete by April |
|
STO. TOMAS, Batangas -- President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo wants the STAR-SLEX
(Southern Tagalog Arterial Road-South Luzon Expressway) interconnection be
completed by April. The President said she wants this big-ticket infrastructure project fast-tracked to give people the convenience of traveling to their hometowns in the south with ease. In brief remarks at the construction site, the President asked Isaac David, president of South Luzon Tollway Corporation, the operator of SLEX, if it would be possible for the company to assign round-the-clock shifts, seven days a week, so that the project could be completed in time for the summer school vacation. In his reply, David told the President that he would inform their contractor and assured the President that the project would be completed by that time. The President expressed satisfaction over the development and coined a new name for the "conjoined" highway. She called it STARLEX, which, she said, stands for Southern Tagalog Arterial Road Luzon Expressway. Once completed, the STARLEX, which starts from Batangas City, will cut travel time to Makati City by an hour. The road complex forms part of PGMA's Luzon Urban Beltway, one of the Super Regions, all designed to decongest Metro Manila and bring development and progress to nearby provinces. |
|
|
| PGMA sets infra visit, Cabinet meeting in QC |
|
President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo will inspect tomorrow the construction
work on the P500 million underpass in Barangay Talipapa in Quezon City. She
will also preside over a Cabinet meeting in the area. The underpass is part of the Luzon Urban Beltway which the President is touring. It links the Circumferential Road 5 (C-5) on Mindanao Avenue in Novaliches, Quezon City, to the North Luzon Expressway (NLEx) in Valenzuela City. The cabinet will be held at the Novaliches Barangay Hall. Expected to be operational by April this year, the project, also called Segment 8.1, is among the administration’s road projects aimed at spurring development in Luzon. When completed, travel time from C5 (Mindanao Avenue) in Quezon City to the NLEx will be cut by more than half an hour. |
|
|
| PGMA's legacy: Strong Republic Nautical Highway |
|
BATANGAS CITY – The Strong Republic Nautical Highway (SRNH) is one of the
legacies President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo will leave the Filipino
people when she steps down in June. The disclosure was made by Oscar Sevilla, general manager of Philippine Ports Authority in Batangas City. According to Sevilla, the SRNH links Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao via the western seaboard. It connects Manila to Dipolog City in Mindanao, Biliran in Leyte to Surigao City, and Bicol to Cagayan de Oro. It is thus instrumental in spurring growth in the entire country. Envisioned as the “highway of the sea,” the 919-kilometer (land) and 137-nautical mile (sea) seamless transport infrastructure network connects the huge consumer markets of Luzon to the agricultural production centers of Mindanao. It reduces the cost of travel by 37 percent to 43 percent for passengers and 24 percent to 34 percent for cargo, and the time of travel by 10 to 12 hours when compared by conventional air and sea travel. Because of this, Sevilla said, passenger traffic in and around the islands have grown from 2.6-million in 2001 to 4.9-million in 2009. The infrastructure project has enabled tourist arrivals to breach the three million mark, while total domestic cargo and passenger traffic in 2007 by sea reached 72.8 and 44.5 million (MT), respectively. The ro-ro (roll on roll off) shipping facilitates much of the traffic. Traffic between Batangas City port to other SRNH destinations has substantially increased, to 85 sea vessel trips everyday. Also, the ro-ro network has resulted in the reduction of port charges, with freight rates now based on the lane meter, which is the actual space occupied by the cargo on the ship, rather than on the tedious commodity classification system. It has also eliminated cargo handling and wharfage. Because of competition, players in the domestic shipping industry, have improved their operations to improve profitability. For instance, Aboitiz Transport Service (ATS), in partnership with Maersk Line, has introduced bigger ships to realize economies of scale. As a result, ATS net income grew by 130 percent, with ro-ro contributing much of the profit. Based on a recent study done by the Center for Research and Communication (CRC), transporting goods via the western nautical highway is cheaper compared to conventional shipping. For example, transporting fresh fish from Capiz, Iloilo, and Estancia to Manila has become economical. Fish traders claim they are better off with the multi-trip schedules of ro-ro service compared with the limited daily schedules of big liners. Instead of shipping at the same time, fish traders now time their shipments properly. The reduction in cost has changed the way shippers transport their goods throughout the country. For instance, Nestle Phils, a multinational food conglomerate, has closed down 33 of its 36 distribution centers nationwide. It now makes small, frequent and direct deliveries to its clients, thus minimizing the need for inventories. Universal Robina, which transports its products from its plant in Ugong, Pasig to the rest of the country, now makes 12 trips a day instead of once a week. . With the expansion of market coverage, the trucking industry is undergoing major transformation as well. From a highly dependent shipper-client type of operation, the trucking business is expected to evolve into an entrepreneur/ marketing-based type of economic activity, where the truckers actively look for the products to move within and among islands. |
|
|
