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UL Skin Sciences introduces new multivitamin for supermoms

Discover the latest power vitamin for all Supermoms who need “lakas at ganda” every day

Normally, mothers would feel exhausted or overworked after a long tiring day of managing the household, working, and taking care of kids at home. Not to mention, in these challenging times, moms would take extra efforts to keep her family healthy and safe. All these pressures may take a toll on every mother’s health and on how she looks. That is why they need a reliable ally in looking after themselves while they look after their loved ones.

UL Skin Sciences, the maker of personal care brands like Myra, pH Care and Céleteque, strives to achieve its vision of a life well-lived for everyone, especially Filipino mothers. Introducing the new FORTIMA, a multi-vitamin that is thoughtfully curated for the new generation of supermoms. Fortima is powered by Fortibella Complex, a unique and effective combination of Vitamin C (500 mg Sodium Ascorbate), Zinc (27.5 mg of Zinc Sulfate Monohydrate) and Vitamin E (22 I.U. d-Alpha Tocopheryl Succinate), all infused in one (1) tablet. The synergistic effect of these three (3) nutrients can help provide a strong body to fulfill multiple roles as a mom, strong immunity against common illnesses, and healthy-looking skin.

Fortima addresses the changing needs of all types of supermoms. With Fortima, all supermoms can now power through motherhood while feeling at their best even while braving this pandemic. Health is indeed the top-most priority, not to mention staying strong and beautiful for supermoms and empowered women alike. Indeed, “Kapag may LAKAS ka, iba ang GANDA!”

Get your daily dose of Fortima for as low as PHP12.50 per tablet in leading drugstores and supermarkets nationwide. You may also shop online through UL Skin Sciences Official Stores in Lazada, Shopee, and BeautyMNL.

To know more about the NEW Fortima, visit the website https://fortima.com.ph and follow Fortima’s Facebook (@fortimaphilippines) and Instagram (@fortima) accounts. Shop at Beauty & Health Hub in Shopee Mall, and UL Skin Sciences Flagship Store in LazMall.

Be a #FortiMAMA today and join Fortima in this health and beauty journey enabling more supermoms to achieve that #LAKASatGANDANGFortima.

 

Spotlight is BusinessWorld’s sponsored section that allows advertisers to amplify their brand and connect with BusinessWorld’s audience by enabling them to publish their stories directly on the BusinessWorld Web site. For more information, send an email to online@bworldonline.com.

China to draft laws for areas including national security, anti-monopoly

BEIJING – China will draft new laws on national security, technology innovation, monopolies and education, as well as in areas involving foreigners, the national leadership said in a document published late on Wednesday.

The government has in recent months reined in tech giants with anti–monopoly or data security rules and clamped down on tutoring companies, as the state increases its control of the economy and society.

Authorities used a law aimed at responding to foreign sanctions for the first time last month to sanction former U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and imposed a national security law on the special region of Hong Kong last year, employing legal means to protect interests beyond the mainland border.

President Xi Jinping has made “rule of law governance” a signature of his rule, which will be extended if, as expected, he seeks a third term next year.

The Chinese Communist Party and the government asserted that a “rule of law government” must follow the leadership of the party, in a blueprint for the five years to 2025 published by the state-run Xinhua news agency.

Authorities will aim to develop laws consistent with new sectors such as the digital economy, internet finance, artificial intelligence, big data, cloud computing, they said, adding that they would also improve the response to emergencies.

The party and government said they would also improve legislation around public health by amending the infectious disease law and the “frontier health and quarantine law”. China is working for a return to normal after the coronavirus pandemic, which emerged in its Wuhan city in late 2019.

They also laid out directives for the prevention and resolution of social conflicts and reiterated an order for officials to “nip conflicts in the bud”.

Better legislation for areas including education, race and religion and biosecurity was also on the cards, they said.

Regulations dealing with food and medicine, natural resources, industrial safety production, urban governance, transport, would be strictly enforced, they said. – Reuters

Sitel Group gives back through 2021 SitelFit challenge for charity

The “Be Your Best Yoga Pose Challenge” was one of the contests for Sitel Philippines associates that encouraged them to participate and gave them a chance to win fun prizes. Margilen Reyes, Sitel Eton, was among those who rose to the challenge.

The global BPO wellness program, SitelFit, supports global learning while promoting employee health, fitness, and well being

The “Be Your Best Yoga Pose Challenge” was one of the contests for Sitel Philippines associates that encouraged them to participate and gave them a chance to win fun prizes. Margilen Reyes, Sitel Eton, was among those who rose to the challenge.

Sitel Group®, a global leader in end-to-end customer experience (CX) products, and solutions, encouraged its global roster of employees to get fit for a good cause. Bringing back the highly successful Step Forward, Give Back Challenge, Sitel Group presented employees with a united global fitness challenge for the chance to donate USD$15 thousand to World Learning, a global organization focused on making high-quality Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) education programs available worldwide.

Launched in the Philippines in 2018, the SitelFit program is a global health and wellbeing initiative that encourages Sitel Group associates to make healthy choices and provides health and wellness information and advice.

In 2020, before the pandemic, SitelFit launched the #OneSmallChange campaign encouraging employees to take even just small steps to create positive changes in their lives. SitelFit also regularly calls on Sitel Group associates to participate in exciting and fun challenges for charity and to create and achieve personal fitness goals.

SitelFit launched the first global challenge Step Forward, Give Back challenge last year. The program invited associates all over the world to engage in friendly competition and participate in a variety of physical activities while challenging them to accumulate 1,000,000 points to unlock a donation to a global Non-Government Organization (NGO). In 2020, Sitel Group teams collectively unlocked a donation for UNICEF through their combined efforts.

“For 2021, we wanted to bring back the Step Forward, Give Back challenge, but make it even bigger and better,” shared DimitarPigev, global program manager, SitelFit. “We experienced such a positive response in 2020 and now we’re challenging our global teams to take it even further. For 2021 we’re supporting the STEM education program of the World Learning organization which is aligned with our global CSR strategy of education and wellbeing.”

For the 2021 Step Forward, Give Back Challenge, Sitel Group challenged associates to reach 3,000,000 points globally and activate 3,000 new SitelFit users across the company’s 29 countries around the world to unlock a donation of USD S15 thousand for World Learning. The NGO operates in over 60 locations worldwide with participants from over 162 countries.

In the Philippines, Sitel Group encouraged Philippine associates to participate in the global challenge by hosting local inter-site challenges. Sites in the country were encouraged to sign-up new members and contribute to the global step challenge. Weekly challenges with different activities and fitness pose goals were launched, and the site with the highest points and sign-ups won a monetary donation for their chosen local charity.

“Our associates rose to the challenge admirably,” Pigev added. “They completed it in just 19 days. Not only did they allow us to contribute to World Learning, but the positive impact the program has had has so many dimensions. Through this initiative, we emphasize our company values and culture, make stronger connections, focus on our people’s wellbeing, create opportunities for growth in our communities and have fun together. As an organization, we fully believe in the power of giving back and investing time and resources into meaningful causes which resonate with our core values.”

 

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Nerves of steel: Under pressure, CEO Benjamin Yao steers SteelAsia to recovery

The company continues to raise the bar amid disruptions.

 

It takes tons of courage and dedication to forge ahead—much less expand—one’s business amid uncertain times as the pandemic disrupted industrial production worldwide.

SteelAsia, despite being the country’s largest steel manufacturer, was not exempted from the economic uncertainty brought upon by the health crisis. The company took a hit last year with revenues down to about only 70 percent of its 2019 output.

Any other CEO would have decided to take a step back, but for Benjamin Yao, recognized in the industry as the man of steel himself, it was an opportunity to shake things up and innovate new solutions. The result: An organization that continues to thrive at a time when most businesses are still trying to recover. In fact, starting in March this year, all of its six plants are running at 100 percent capacity, and it was able to protect and keep the jobs of its over 3,000 employees. “It took a pandemic for the Philippines to do what is right in the construction sector, something which we started 20 years ago,” he added.

Powering through a pandemic

Apart from the company’s agility, it was also through the help and support of industry partners and stakeholders—including Meralco and its subsidiary MSERV—that SteelAsia was able to bounce back in record time.

“We are in an industry where power is a major cost—a major component—aside from the raw materials. In fact, labor is much, much lower [a cost] compared to power and fuel. Meralco plays a big role in building the steel industry,” he said.

Meralco has been the distribution utility for SteelAsia’s Meycauayan plant since 1988. As the steel manufacturer’s operational needs grew over the years, so did the partnership with Meralco, who continued to address its power requirements as needed.

The partnership between the two companies began over three decades ago, when the power distributor energized the steel manufacturer’s plant in Meycauayan, Bulacan.

A key example was when SteelAsia started manufacturing reinforcing mesh and ramped up the production of steel rebars, which led to the decision to migrate from 34.5-kV to 115-kV. The plant’s migration was completed in August 2018, resulting in optimal power quality and minimal interruptions.

“The migration, together with the load flow analysis greatly helped in stabilizing the voltage supply in our Meycauayan plant. Being connected to the 115-kV also greatly reduced the system’s loss being charged to us,” Yao said.

MSERV, an energy solutions expert, took care of the supply and replacement of the power circuit breaker in SteelAsia’s Batangas plant, which ensured the safe condition of its electrical system.

The two companies are also looking to work together to energize a new plant that SteelAsia will begin constructing in 2022.

No retrenchment here

SteelAsia also takes pride in being able to keep its employees and provide a livelihood for them, despite being severely affected in the first few months of the pandemic.

“We did not retrench any employees. We are, in fact, hiring more people today. We also have more plants coming up: one in Compostela, Candelaria (Quezon), Cebu, another in Lemery, Batangas, and yet another in Concepcion, Tarlac,” Yao said.

At a time when companies are reducing their manpower, SteelAsia was able to retain—and even continues to grow—its workforce.

“And because of COVID-19, they wanted to lessen people in job sites. Suddenly, our cut and bend products are very much in demand. Off-site fabrication work has become very popular; we deliver to the job site and the rebars are ready for installation.”

SteelAsia pioneered off-site fabrication that introduced cut and bend, a value-added rebar solution, to the Philippines where rebar work was done primarily at construction sites.

Stakeholders all-in as we bounce back

Yao underscored the importance of support both from the government through efforts to level the playing field and crackdown on substandard materials and from utility firms through faster installation of high-voltage lines.

“In certain places outside of Meralco’s franchise, it takes about four years to set up high-voltage 115-kV transmission lines. I think that would turn off a lot of investors because there is a lot of uncertainty within the four-year period. That is a suffering that we all bear and that is why we still do not have a steel industry in our country,” he said.

“We produce two million tons of steel but most of our steel products remain imported: I-beams, H-beams, sheet piles. We import 100 percent of these from our neighboring countries. And these are the products that we in SteelAsia would like to go into and these require high-voltage,” he added.

To ensure that substandard steel products do not flood the market, Yao said SteelAsia has been working closely with the Department of Trade and Industry and its Bureau of Philippine Standards.

“The opportunity is still here in the Philippines”

While he is first to acknowledge that the Philippines has been lagging behind when it comes to steel infrastructure, citing as an example the Metro Manila Skyway project that began construction in 1995 and formally opened only in January this year, Yao remains optimistic. “The opportunity is still here in the Philippines—not in Singapore, not in Japan. We just have to do what we can do.”

“If Vietnam was able to dramatically increase its steel production, that can be done also in the Philippines. We are not a small country—we are a country of more than 100 million people so there is a market here. There is demand,” he said.

“We are doing our part. The pandemic is separating the men from the boys, so to speak…It is tough but we don’t stop. In fact, we are still expanding. This is our main thrust: to serve our country,” Yao added.

 

Spotlight is BusinessWorld’s sponsored section that allows advertisers to amplify their brand and connect with BusinessWorld’s audience by enabling them to publish their stories directly on the BusinessWorld Web site. For more information, send an email to online@bworldonline.com.

 

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For a thriving workplace, build empathy — author

Screenshot via Building Empathy: A Key to Thriving Workplaces

Empathy is not an optional soft skill in the workplace, according to Jamil Zaki, professor of psychology at Stanford University and author of The War for Kindness: Building Empathy in a Fractured World. Citing several studies, he said that empathy leads to effective collaboration, increased morale, reduced stress, more effective feedback, and a more inclusive attitude.  

“Empathy begins when we stop making assumptions and start asking questions,” he said in a July webinar on thriving workplaces organized by video conferencing platform Zoom.  

The most effective teams, he added, are characterized not just by the sum of their parts, but also by the presence of psychological safety (the feeling that each individual has a voice in the room) and interpersonal sensitivity (having the ability to pick out what others are feeling).  

‘PAUSE AND REFRESH’ 
TaskUs, a business process outsourcing company, has been working towards fostering an environment of trust through its creation of a wellness and resilience team (separate from human resources). It has also incorporated vulnerability as part of its leadership training.  

“We ask our leaders to share with their team the struggles they face and the emotions they experience,” Vina D. Paglicawan, director of wellness and resiliency, told BusinessWorld in an e-mail interview. “In turn, we see employees become more trusting and willing to take greater risks and ask for help when needed.”  

In a separate e-mail interview, Janessa C. Tek-ing, associate business director of the agency Red Havas, described compassion’s relationship with productivity.   

“We roll up our sleeves and deliver results — but we don’t treat each other like robots,” she said. “Our productivity isn’t only measured by the work that we do, but how passionate we are while doing it as a team. We get more things done when we know that our teammates are behind us.”  

Breaks offset the psychological cost of working hard, and leaders can make it clear that taking time off is part of being productive. “Employees can take their vacation leaves without having to worry about the work they left because we all need time to hit pause and refresh,” said Ms. Tek-ing.  

To this point, Mr. Zaki said that self-compassion is not selfish: “Being there for ourselves is the only way to be there for other people sustainably.” — Patricia B. Mirasol 

SIDEBAR | How to practice empathy 

Balancing the scale of perspective getting (asking about someone’s reality) and perspective giving (sharing one’s reality) improves understanding, builds rapport, and balances the empathic scale at work.  

Here’s how companies can practice empathy at work, according to Jamil Zaki, professor of psychology at Stanford University and author of The War for Kindness: Building Empathy in a Fractured World: 

  • Invite people to share stories. Ensure they feel safe doing so.  
  • Ask yourself: what did I learn in this conversation that I didn’t know before?  
  • Go beyond listening and show your team how you followed through on what they shared. 

N.Korean officials inspect flood damage as more heavy rains strike coast

SEOUL – North Korea’s premier inspected areas of the country hit by floods, state media reported on Thursday, as new rounds of heavy rain struck towns along the east coast and raised concerns about damage to crops.

Kim Tok Hun, premier of North Korea’s cabinet, toured areas of South Hamgyong Province, speaking to troops and other emergency responders mobilised to help repair the damage, state news agency KCNA reported.

“Learning about the living conditions of the flood victims, he stressed the need for the officials of the province to relieve the troubles of the victims in time while sharing pain with them,” KCNA said.

In June, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said the country faced a “tense” food situation, citing the coronavirus pandemic and last year’s typhoons, and the new wave of storms has raised concerns about food shortages.

On Sunday, he mobilized the military to carry out relief work in areas recently hit by heavy rains.

State broadcaster KRT reported some areas of North Hamgyong Province had been hit with as much as 300mm (11.8 inches) of new rain on Wednesday.

“Downpours have already hit these regions, so we need to prepare thorough countermeasures,” a KRT presenter said.

“Measures for houses, buildings, crop fields, power plants, roads, railroads, and riverbanks are especially needed to prevent damage from landslides caused by floods.” – Reuters

United CEO expects more companies will heed Biden’s call to vaccinate

STOCK PHOTO

WASHINGTON – United Airlines Chief Executive Scott Kirby said he believes more U.S. companies and organizations will begin requiring COVID-19 vaccinations, after a meeting with President Joe Biden on the topic on Wednesday.

“A few weeks from now, this is going to be something that’s widespread across the country because it’s really just a basic safety issue,” Mr. Kirby told CNN after the meeting.

United is among a growing list of U.S. companies mandating shots for workers as COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations soar in areas with low vaccination rates, mainly conservative states in the U.S. South.

Mr. Kirby said Mr. Biden had asked those at the 30-minute meeting about their vaccination efforts and encouraged them to persuade other business leaders to follow suit.

Alaska Airlines, which employs about 20,000 people, said separately that it was looking closely at whether it would require that its employees be vaccinated.

“If we do, the requirement would not be effective until at least one vaccine is fully approved by the FDA and would include appropriate religious and medical exemptions”, an Alaska Airlines spokesperson said in an emailed statement.

Earlier, a White House official said Howard University President Wayne Frederick, Kaiser Permanente Chief Executive Gregory Adams and a South Carolina business owner who adopted a vaccinate-or-get-tested requirement for her workers would also attend the meeting.

Mr. Biden has endorsed companies and local governments pressing more people to get vaccinated. His administration is also looking into what authority businesses have to mandate vaccines, Labor Secretary Marty Walsh told Reuters last week.

“I will have their backs and the backs of other private- and public-sector leaders if they take such steps,” the Democratic president said last week.

United announced its vaccine requirement for U.S.-based employees last week and Mr. Kirby said that while some had opposed the move, the overall response had been overwhelmingly positive.

Mandating vaccines for passengers would be more difficult, he said, citing logistical challenges.

Its major U.S. rivals, American Airlines, Delta Air Lines and Southwest Airlines, are encouraging employee vaccinations but not imposing them.

U.S. airlines have enjoyed a broad rebound in travel demand this summer, but Southwest warned on Wednesday that rising COVID-19 cases were hitting demand, a sign of the impact of the Delta variant on the U.S. economy.

Among other transportation companies, U.S. passenger railroad Amtrak said on Wednesday it would require all of its 18,000 employees to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 by Nov. 1 or submit to weekly testing. – Reuters

California becomes first state to order teachers to get COVID vaccine or test

FREEPIK

California on Wednesday became the first U.S. state to require that its teachers and other school staff be vaccinated or regularly tested for COVID-19, a move Governor Gavin Newsom called “a responsible step” to ensure the safety of children.

The move comes as Texas Governor Greg Abbott’s statewide ban on mask mandates hit its second legal setback after a judge in Dallas County temporarily blocked it from being enforced amid a nationwide rise in coronavirus cases.

Abbott and fellow Republican Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida have faced defiance over their statewide orders that prevent local officials from deciding whether to require that masks be worn.

Masks have become a divisive issue, often splitting the country along political lines, despite near universal agreement among health experts that they can limit the spread of the virus.

In Tennessee, over a hundred anti-mask protesters heckled masked people, including doctors and nurses, on Tuesday in Williamson County where the school board voted earlier to require masks for elementary students.

A video with nearly 2 million views on Twitter shows the crowd surrounding a masked man as he walked to his car. Protesters yelled: “We will find you” and “We know who you are. No more masks.”

The vaccination requirement in California schools follows similar orders that applied to state employees and healthcare workers.

“We think this is a sustainable way to keeping our schools open, and to address the No. 1 anxiety that parents like myself have for young children,” Mr. Newsom said at a briefing where he was flanked by state teachers’ union officials who support the move.

Spurred by the Delta variant, the country’s coronavirus cases have spiked to their highest levels in more than six months, according to a Reuters tally. New U.S. cases have increased more than five-fold over the past month with the seven-day average hitting 118,000 on Tuesday.

In response, the U.S. government and several states, along with some hospitals, universities and a growing number of private employers, have said they require employees to get inoculated. The White House said last week that almost 90% of U.S. educators and school staff are vaccinated.

New York City last week become the first major U.S. city to require proof of COVID-19 vaccination at restaurants, gyms and other businesses, starting next month.

In Texas, the temporary order in Dallas issued late on Tuesday by Judge Tonya Parker allows officials in the state’s second-most populous county to require masks indoors, despite Abbott’s July order against such mandates. A hearing on Aug. 24 will determine whether to extend the temporary order.

The top elected official in Dallas County, Judge Clay Jenkins, who sought the court order issued late Tuesday, said preventative steps such as mask-wearing are needed to combat a spike in new cases of COVID-19.

“Models predict ongoing dramatic increases in cases and hospitalizations over the coming weeks that will exceed the peak earlier this year unless behavior change takes place,” he said Tuesday on Twitter.

In a written statement, Mr. Abbott said that he had asked an appeals court to strike down Jenkins’ action on masks, saying it clearly violated his executive order. The Texas Disaster Act, he continued, gives the governor the power to decided on such actions in an emergency.

“The path forward relies on personal responsibility – not government mandates,” Mr. Abbott said.

Earlier on Tuesday, another Texas court granted an order at least until Monday that enables officials in San Antonio and Bexar Counties to require that masks be worn in public schools.

 

SOUTHERN EPICENTER

Oregon and Washington state are also grappling with surges in cases and hospitalizations as the outbreak spreads beyond the epicenter in the U.S. South.

Oregon Governor Kate Brown on Wednesday announced all state executive branch employees must be vaccinated, and she also reimposed a statewide indoor mask mandate.

The latest coronavirus wave is still the worst in Southern states, based on new cases and hospitalizations per capita in recent weeks.

Arkansas, Florida and Louisiana are all reporting record COVID-19 hospitalizations in recent days.

Florida’s Broward County school board on Tuesday flouted an order by DeSantis that outlaws mask requirements in the state, prompting the administration of U.S. President Joe Biden, a Democrat, to say it was considering supporting the school districts financially if DeSantis retaliates against them by withholding funds from officials’ salaries. – Reuters

Elderly Chileans line up for booster jabs to reinforce Sinovac’s COVID-19 vaccine

SANTIAGO – Chile on Wednesday began administering booster shots to those already inoculated with Sinovac’s COVID-19 vaccine in a bid to lock in early success following one of the world’s fastest mass vaccination drives.

Lines of elderly citizens eager to participate in the campaign began forming at vaccination centers in neighborhoods across the capital Santiago on a cool winter morning in the Southern Hemisphere.

“They arrived very early, like on an election day, very well dressed, very happy,” said Rodolfo Carter, mayor of La Florida on the outskirts of the city. “I think it is a great sign of hope.”

Chile’s blistering campaign has seen upwards of 67% of its population fully vaccinated, predominantly with Sinovac’s CoronaVac. But authorities last week said studies had shown a booster was necessary to shore up immunity.

“Studies have shown that precisely at approximately 6 months there is a decrease (of antibodies) and that is why we have decided …to give this booster dose,” Health minister Enrique Paris told reporters.

The South American nation on Wednesday began offering a dose of Oxford’s Astrazeneca vaccine to citizens aged 86 and older who received their initial shots before March 31.

Chile joins the United States, Germany, France and Israel in giving the booster shots, despite a plea by the World Health Organization to hold off until more people around the world can get their first shot.

Dr. Fernando Leanes, a WHO representative in Chile, told Reuters that there was not yet sufficient data to support the use of booster shots.

“With limited supply, you have to consider the global perspective,” Leanes said. “There are countries that have not been able to complete the vaccination of their health workers and that is a danger for all countries.”

Leanes said the WHO was nonetheless in regular contact with Chilean health authorities and otherwise praised Chile’s efforts in research and in donating vaccines to neighboring countries.

Chilean Omar Salazar, 90, was happy to wait in line for his third shot early on Wednesday. He said every little bit counts at his age.

“I think it will help me live a little longer. We will continue the same with the mask and anyway.” – Reuters

Strong quake strikes Philippines, no major damage reported

MANILA – A powerful magnitude 7.1 earthquake struck off the Philippines on Thursday, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) said, as initial warnings about the risk of tsunamis were lifted and with no immediate reports of casualties or major damage.

The quake was at a depth of 65.6 km (40.76 miles), the USGS said, with its epicentre in the Philippine Sea southeast of Davao City.

The Philippine national disaster agency had so far received no reports of casualties, injuries or major damage, administrator Ricardo Jalad said. “Looks like nothing scary happened, like a collapse of a building,” Mr. Jalad told reporters.

Airports, sea ports and key infrastructure were for the most part unaffected by the quake, while all personnel were accounted for, the transport ministry said.

A seldom-used airport in southern Davao Oriental province had minor cracks on the runway, but there was no damage to the passenger terminal building, it said.

The Philippines’ seismology agency initially warned of the risk of damage, aftershocks and a tsunami, but it later said data showed there was no threat of a destructive tsunami.

The U.S. National Weather Service and Hawaii Emergency Management also said there was no risk of a tsunami for the U.S. West Coast or Hawaii.

The Philippines is on the geologically active Pacific Ring of Fire and experiences frequent earthquakes. – Reuters

Busybee, DTI and TPB lead discussion to help businesses adapt to pandemic-accelerated digitalization

TPB's COO Atty. Allones, Hosts Ellirie Aviles, Chryssta Cordoves, and Krystene Bello

The future of digital technologies and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in Philippine businesses, especially the e-commerce industry, provided the theme of the second part of the Webinar series, “Coping with the Accelerated Digitalization: Empowering Organizations with Digital Tools,” organized by Busybee — the Philippines’ top digital and media giant. Known professionals from different parts of the country, together with the event’s panelists and speakers from concerned government agencies and the private sector, joined and established actionable practices on how to stay competitive in this new business and economic environment, and bridged the knowledge gap on e-commerce information and resources, and catalyzing on partnerships among businesses.

Busybee welcomed its guest speakers, Supervising STIDS of the Digital Philippines-Ecommerce Division of DTI Philippines Wea Bohol, Lamudi Group Philippines CEO Kenneth Stern, and the Chief Operating Officer of the Tourism Promotions Board Philippines Atty. Maria Anthonette Velasco-Allones, with a mission to help individuals and businesses make the switch to digital, ensure business continuity, and continue to deliver public services during this time of crisis and even beyond — a view that was resoundingly echoed throughout the whole session.

In her presentation, Ms. Bohol highlighted the reason behind why there is a need to digitalize our businesses and how companies can utilize so many opportunities around us. Nowhere else has unprecedented and unforeseen growth occurred as in the digital and e-commerce sectors, which have boomed amid the COVID-19 crisis. She shared that DTI’s priority is digital transformation and that e-commerce is really easy, convenient, and fast. The session she was in was entitled “Will Physical Offices and Shops Remain Relevant Post-Pandemic? A Conversation about E-commerce and Real Estate,” reiterating that there is a big opportunity for e-commerce in the country as she presented the E-commerce Philippines 2022 Roadmap and we are even expecting growth moving forward. “E-commerce will be in the forefront in bringing back our economy from this pandemic. Instead of adapting to the new normal, we should make a better normal,” Ms. Bohol noted.

During the second session, Mr. Stern discussed the current trends in the real estate industry and how he is leading his company to cope with the pandemic-accelerated digitalization. He noted that the demand in warehousing and commercial spaces have boomed since the pandemic. He explained, “Over the last year, more people are going online to search for properties than before. Traditional marketing is virtually nonexistent at this point. Most property sellers and developers have moved completely digital.” He then elaborated, “There’s a lot of things happening every day, every second online. How do you stand out? How do you reach the right person? How do you stand out with thousands of listings and multiple portals?” At the panel discussion, Mr. Stern shared that because of the current work setup, their company has actually reached very high efficiency and that this trend is seen to continue even after the pandemic.

Atty. Velasco-Allones offered insights into the new normal in hosting events in her presentation. She shared that when the going gets tough, we have absolutely no choice but to innovate and to adapt to continue to serve and function. She expounded on the Meetings, Incentives, Conferences & Exhibitions (MICE) industry as an important economic engine, and how it will continually evolve as digital technology grows. She illustrated how when the lockdown happened, The Tourism Promotions Board (TPB) Philippines paved the way for digitalization through SMARTourism. It is about pivoting from traditional face-to-face events to a hybrid and even full digital experience for businesses, and creating a completely new value chain model using digital platforms, which enabled continued operations in spite of contact restrictions and other confinement measures. The bar has indeed been raised for digital experiences.

Atty. Velasco-Allones concluded the presentation by sharing her “3 Cs” which according to her are important lessons in order for businesses to thrive in the new normal. First is that “Content is supreme.” If you have a good and established program, people will definitely come. Secondly is that, if you want to go further and sustain success along the way, “Collaboration is the only way to go,” and that cultivating relationships or partnerships are key pathways to successfully do things. Lastly is to nurture the sense of courage especially during these times that are so uncertain and volatile because “Courage is the lever moving forward.” With the disruption brought by the pandemic, the government offices are truly leading a strong integration in digitalization and collaboration. Hybrid events are the big bets in marketing strategies and digital MICE is indeed not just a trend, but is here to stay.

Finally, one of Busybee’s Virtual Event Platform Project Manager, Mark Remoriata, gave the audience a preview and a tour of the company’s Virtual Event Platform (VEP), the very first virtual event platform in the Philippines with cutting-edge event technology engineered by Busybee’s top senior software architects and developers. This new innovation of technology has powered events of all sizes, from large international conferences to focused B2B meets in industries ranging from Defense, Information Technology, Aerospace to Medicine, Nano Technology, Artificial Intelligence, and many others. This is just one of the solutions provided by Busybee in harnessing the potential of e-commerce to be a better place to benefit from global markets for goods and services in this digitalizing economy.

There is no doubt that digital technologies will continue to transform the way we live and work because digital transformation is not just an option anymore but a must. In any organization, digital transformation makes a huge difference because what is happening right now will stay even post-pandemic.

The third part of this Webinar series will be held on Aug. 12, with invited panelists and speakers from the Department of Information and Communications Technology, Busybee’s Cyber Security Division, and the Data Security and Technology Standards Division of the National Privacy Commission (NPC). The theme will focus on cybersecurity in the Philippines and securing information online. To join the conversation, you may sign up through their website, https://www.mybusybee.net/busybee-webinar/.

Busybee sets its sights firmly on demonstrating the impact — technological, business, and societal — of the widespread adoption of digital technologies and the requirement to digitize many businesses’ facilities and processes. The company believes that technology is the right infrastructure to help the country further realize its potential by helping more businesses move online, equipping the workforce with digital skills, and enabling the new generation of startups with training and development in their digital skills.

Villar SIPAG home gardening program champions food security, nutrition and income

Senator Cynthia A. Villar pioneered the distribution of vegetable seed packets and compost to encourage people to grow their own food, to be able to save money, acquired nutrients and source of income.

Villar Social Institute for Poverty Alleviation & Governance (Villar Sipag), is a non-stock, non-profit organization established in 1995, which aims to support projects geared toward helping our less fortunate countrymen break free from the clutches of poverty. It is anchored on “SIPAG” or hard work coupled with perseverance (Tiyaga), which are core values that the Villar family holds in high regard in themselves and in other people as well. The Foundation also works for environment protection, assistance to overseas Filipino Workers, (OFWs), entrepreneurship, livelihood generation, and job creation. Other programs are tree planting, development of culture and arts, health social services, entrepreneurship as well as other poverty-reduction projects.

 

The Program

Even before the coronavirus pandemic, which has afforded people to spend more time in the comforts of their homes, Senator Cynthia A. Villar has been leading the campaign on vegetable gardening, distributing seeds and organic fertilizers all over the country, while enticing people to grow their own food thru their Villar Social Institute for Poverty Alleviation and Governance (Villar Sipag).

The senator, the current chairperson of the Senate Committee on Agriculture and Food, is on the frontline of pushing gardening and composting – turning kitchen and garden wastes into organic fertilizers.

“I’ve always advocated home gardening as a strategy for food security and for the alleviation of nutrient deficiency. It is a big help for families to have direct access to healthier food and fresh vegetables. They don’t have to buy them in the market. They can even earn from it” Villar says.

Aside from seedlings, the senator has been distributing organic fertilizer, also for free, all over the country. It is the product of composting of kitchen and garden wastes. Villar Sipag has 108 composting facilities, 68 in Las Pinas and Bacoor, and 50 through the Vistaland communities all over the Philippines.

 

The Beneficiaries

Seeds, compost, and brochures on how to do home gardening were distributed to LGUs, congressional districts, private individuals, homeowners’ associations and organizations, to private and public schools, farmers thru their cooperatives and associations. The following  cities and provinces per region received the seed packs from Villar Sipag: National Capital Region (Las Pinas, Pasig, Pasay, Muntinlupa, Marikina, Quezon City, San Juan, Manila, Paranaque and Taguig), Region I (Pangasinan, La Union, Ilocos Norte, Ilocos Sur), Region II (Nueva Vizcaya, Isabela and Quirino), Region III (Bulacan,  Pampanga, Nueva Ecija, Tarlac, Zambales and Bataan), Region IV A (Cavite, Batangas, Rizal, Quezon), Region IV B (Palawan, Marinduque Oriental Mindoro and Occidental Mindoro), Region V (Albay, Masbate, Cam Sur and Catanduanes), Region VI Western Visayas (Iloilo, Guimaras, Antique, Aklan, Negros Occidental and Capiz), Region VII Central Visayas (Negros Oriental, Bohol, Cebu, Siquijor), Region VIII  Eastern Visayas (Biliran, Southern Leyte, Leyte, Eastern Samar and Samar), Region IX (Zamboanga City, Zamboanga del Norte, Zamboanga Del Sur),Region X (Misamis Oriental, Misamis Occidental, Bukidnon, Lanao Del Norte), Region XI (Davao Del Sur, Davao Oriental, Davao De Oro, Davao Del Norte, Davao City),Region XII (Sarangani,North Cotabato, South Cotabato)  Region XIII ( Agusan Del Norte, Agusan Del Sur, Surigao Del Sur, Surigao Del Norte, and lastly, Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (Maguindanao). The seed packs that were distributed across the Philippines amounted to 31,207 as of July 2021 and still counting.

Villar SIPAG distributed vegetable seed packets and compost to the following nationwide:

  • 35   Congressional Districts
  • 33   Provinces
  • 304  Cities and Municipalities
  • 53  Cooperative and Farmers Associations
  • 29  Schools
  • 50  Non-Government Organizations
  • 3,795 Individuals

Furthermore, Villar SIPAG has farm schools that were established to give free training in Agri crops production, rice farming, native animal production, and aquaculture. The two farm schools in 2020 produced a total of 2,000 plus graduate trainees a year. It stopped its operation in March 2020 due to quarantine restrictions but in October 2020, Villar SIPAG Farm School in Las Pinas-Bacoor and San Jose del Monte City re-opened and resumed their training programs for Agri crops production again conducted by East-West Seeds Foundation. The quarantine restrictions did not stop Villar Sipag from imparting knowledge and training to the Filipino farmers as they erected two additional farm schools. The existing health protocols during that time compelled them to have shortened sessions to four full days a week with 25 participants per batch. The participants have to undergo Covid testing and practice social distancing, hand washing, foot bath, wearing of mask and face shield.

By giving away vegetable seeds and teaching people how to farm, the people who lost their jobs, including those who can’t buy their own food in the market – started cultivating their land. These families received food packages from different organizations and chose not to depend on these alone by growing their own garden.  Home gardening is essential because of its contribution to food security and self-provision – a buffer against high food prices. Villar Sipag continues to promote urban and home gardens because they believe that by teaching the people how to grow their own food, they will have easy access to healthy and nutritious food.

The Result

The outcome of Villar Sipag’s actions ultimately unfolds when lockdown restrictions in the Philippines continue even to this day. In less than a few months since May 2020, the people who received the vegetable seeds were able to grow their own food. They were able to cut down their food expenses and most especially, had more nutritious meals. Villar Sipag farm schools boost the income of the farmers as well. Trainees were able to apply the knowledge they received to their own farm, however, it did not end there, these farmers that were trained by Villar Sipag as a trainer shared their knowledge to their community as well,  thereby impacting the lives of many Filipino farmers. It contributed to the country’s food security during the pandemic and further develop the agriculture sector in the Philippines.

“Maraming salamat po Senator Villar sa iyong programa.Ito ay sagot lalo na ngayong panahon ng pandemya. Malaking tulong upang maging malusog at masigla ang pamayanan,lalo na sa mahihirap nating kababayan sa bayan ng Hinoba-an,” Mayor Ernesto A. Estrao of Hinoba-an, Negros Occidental said in appreciation to the senator’s initiative.

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