BANGKOK — Thailand’s health ministry said on Thursday it had proposed new travel curbs and tighter restrictions in high-risk areas to contain coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) cases, as the country reported a daily record of 75 deaths from the coronavirus.
Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha is due to consider the new restrictions in a meeting on Friday.
“The health ministry will propose measures first to limit travel and so that people do not leave their homes unless necessary,” the ministry’s permanent secretary, Kiatiphum Wongrajit, told reporters, noting a halt to inter-provincial travel was also being proposed.
Other measures being proposed include closing down non-essential venues and areas that attract crowds, Mr. Kiatiphum said.
The rules would be in place for 14 days and would cover the Bangkok metropolitan area and “buffer zones,” Mr. Kiatiphum said, without elaborating.
“This has similar intensity as April 2020,” he said referring to lockdown measures last year that included a nationwide curfew.
Currently, Thailand has in place measures in “high-risk zones,” including Bangkok and surrounding provinces, to close malls early and prohibit dining in at restaurants, but they have not been able to halt an acceleration of infections in the past month.
Thailand’s COVID-19 task force on Thursday reported 7,058 new coronavirus cases, taking the total number in the country to 308,230. The country has recorded 2,462 fatalities since the pandemic started last year. — Reuters
Businesses of all sizes can and should contribute to gender parity initiatives. “Too often, SMEs [small and medium enterprises] are ‘frightened’ of the larger gender equality advocacy due to the scale of finance, logistics, and strategic planning associated with it. In our observation, these advocacies need not be complex,” said Ma. Aurora “Boots” D. Geotina-Garcia, co-chair of the Philippine Business Coalition for Women Empowerment (PBCWE), via e-mail.
The annual Women’s Empowerment Principles (WEPs) Awards, held by the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women) in Asia-Pacific, is accepting nominations for the 2021 competition and inviting companies of all sizes to be signatories.
There are 51 Philippine-based signatories to the WEPs so far, with eight of them having 10 or fewer employees. Twelve have 11 to 50 employees, including last year’s Youth Leadership winner, the public-private startup platform QBO Innovation Hub.
“The awards were an amazing opportunity for QBO, a young startup, to network with established organizations that share our vision,” said Katrina R. Chan, the Executive Director of the small enterprise, in a press release, “Attaining this recognition raises our profile around the efforts to ensure equal gender representation in tech becomes the norm.”
The Gender-inclusive Workplace category in the WEPs Awards, which PBCWE is presenting along with the Australian initiative Investing in Women (IW), will focus on those that have concrete gender parity efforts, including equal recruitment and pay, and the promotion of women’s career development and leadership.
“We know improving performance in gender equality is linked with positive business outcomes,” said Dr. Julia Newton-Howes, IW chief executive officer, in a statement. “Recognizing the work some companies are doing towards workplace gender equality will demonstrate the benefits this brings such as better risk management, greater innovation, and increased profitability.”
The objective of this year’s WEPs Awards is to recognize businesses persevering towards a more gender-inclusive economic recovery from the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, according to the competition’s press release.
PROGRESS STALLED BY THE PANDEMIC The Philippines is one of the most gender-equal countries in the world, according to the World Economic Forum’s 2021 Global Gender Gap Report, which placed the country 17th out of 156 countries.
Meanwhile, the 2021 Female Opportunity Index,published this July by the digital bank N26, ranked the Philippines 41st out of 100 countries in terms of gender parity in the workplace.
“We are also one of the few countries that has closed at the same time its gender gap in senior roles and in professional and technical roles,” said PBCWE’s Ms. Geotina-Garcia. “This is an important milestone for the private sector.”
The Female Opportunity Index also showed the Philippines placing 37th in terms of women in management. However, based on salary level and wage gap, the country ranked 66th, leaving room for improvement when it comes to equal pay.
“We still have a lot of work to do,” said Ms. Geotina-Garcia, citing a 2019 study on women in managerial positions done by PBCWE and the Makati Business Club that showed that women are more likely to stop working during their childbearing age. “Women tend to step back during their childbearing life phase, whereas males are expected to step up to increase their financial support for the family.”
The progressive leave policy of Accenture in the Philippines was included in PBCWE’s 2019 study as an example of best corporate practices in handling gender diversity. The consulting company implemented 30 days of paternity leave to encourage equal distribution of responsibilities for couples even before the passage of the Philippines Expanded Maternity Leave Law, which allowed mothers to transfer seven of their 105 paid-leave days to the child’s father.
The study also focused on the state of women in the executive level of corporations: it found that while 95.1% (103 female respondents) are confident in their skills, education, and leadership potential, they rated their suitability for leadership roles lower when asked to consider a career upgrade or immediate elevation to a top role.
More recently, the UN Women and the International Finance Corporation (IFC) documented similar efforts in their 2020 report on corporate practices that support gender equality in the face of COVID-19. One of these is Filipino company Insurance Life’s “Sheroes program”, which develops online content advising women how to maintain physical, psychological, and financial well-being in the pandemic.
Progress towards gender parity, however, has been stalled in many economies during the pandemic. “[This is] partly due to women being more frequently employed in sectors hardest hit by lockdowns, combined with the additional pressures of providing care at home,” said Ms. Geotina-Garcia.
GENDER LENS On a larger scale, the field of gender lens investing (GLI) in the country has also been active. Global social enterprise Value for Women’s case study on the Manila Angel Investors Network Inc. (MAIN) showed how the investment group, founded by men, did not start out with a gender lens. MAIN only shifted focus and partnered with IW three years into its existence.
“I think all Filipina women would invest in more women,” an unnamed female MAIN member shared for the study, on the topic of woman investors, “They would understand there’s a need for that (product) and they’d be more empathetic to the woman entrepreneur’s experience.”
Like MAIN, businesses and organizations may not deliberately set out seeking to empower women, but end up doing so over the course of their lifetime.
Consider solar energy company Upgrade Energy Philippines, Inc., a WEPs-signed small enterprise that is 70% women, including engineers, with 60% of the management being women as well.
“This was not deliberate to start with,” said Ruth Yu-Owen, Upgrade Energy president and co-founder of the tech entrepreneur community Connected Women, at the 2021 WEPs Awards info session about how women are naturally taking the forefront. “What does it tell us? It just happened because women are equally qualified engineers, managers, and leaders in an industry dominated by men.”
FRAMEWORK FOR EQUALITY Business, companies, and enterprises of any size, including subsidiaries of multinationals and their branches, industry associations, stock exchanges, and chambers of commerce of eligible countries — a very broad and inclusive scope — can apply to the WEPs Awards.
“The WEPs provide a framework for all businesses to guide their work towards gender equality regardless of size, sector, industry, or location,” said UN Women Philippines Program Manager Ma. Rosalyn G. Mesina, during this year’s information session.
“If you’re sitting on the fence, just go for it,” said Ms. Yu-Owen of Connected Women, “You have nothing to lose and everything to gain, so I highly encourage everyone to join the WEPs awards and sign the WEPs. It makes good business sense to do so.”
The 2021 WEPs Awards will accept nominations until July 31. The National WEPs Awards ceremonies in the Philippines will be hosted by WeEmpowerAsia in October.
WASHINGTON – A coalition of 24 industry organizations urged the White House to lift coronavirus restrictions that bar much of the world from traveling to the United States but a White House official told Reuters late on Wednesday reopening will need more discussion.
The group, led by the U.S. Travel Association and representing airlines, casinos, hotels, airports, airplane manufacturers and others, urged the administration to ease by July 15 entry restrictions imposed last year as the coronavirus was spreading around the world.
Separately, 75 members of the U.S. House of Representatives are also seeking the easing of travel bans, in particular entry restrictions on travelers from Canada and Britain.
In early June, the White House launched interagency working groups with the European Union, Britain, Canada, and Mexico to look at how to eventually to lift restrictions. Those meetings have generally been occurring every two weeks.
“While these groups have met a number of times, there are further discussions to be had before we can announce any next steps on travel reopening with any country,” the White House official told Reuters.
“We want to ensure that we move deliberately and are in a position to sustainably reopen international travel when it is safe to do so.”
The 75 members of the U.S. House of Representatives called on Biden to reopen the U.S. border with Canada to non-essential travelers.
The lawmakers in a letter cited projections that if the restrictions are not lifted, the United States could “lose 1.1 million jobs and an additional $175 billion by the end of this year.”
The industry groups also called for quickly lifting restrictions on European travelers and others, calling as a first step for allowing fully vaccinated travelers from non-high-risk areas like the European Union to enter the United States.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has raised concerns about the Delta variant of COVID-19 in U.S. government meetings, sources said.
Industry and U.S. officials told Reuters they do not expect the administration to lift restrictions soon.
The White House official said the interagency working groups have looked at “progress in our domestic vaccination effort and the risk posed by the Delta variant.”
The CDC wants airlines to implement international passenger contact tracing as part of any lifting of restrictions, sources told Reuters.
Airlines and others have pressed the administration to lift restrictions covering most non-U.S. citizens who have recently been in Britain, the 26 Schengen nations in Europe without border controls, Ireland, China, India, South Africa, Iran and Brazil.
Some travel industry officials think it increasingly likely the restrictions will not be lifted until after the busy summer travel season.
The 75 lawmakers called for lifting restrictions that bar most UK travelers and to develop “a risk-based, data-driven roadmap to ease inbound entry restrictions.”
Some in Congress have also called on the administration to lift rules for travelers to wear masks in airports, subway stations and on airplanes and trains but is not currently considering lifting those requirements, officials told Reuters.
The Transportation Security Administration in April extended the face mask requirement in transit through Sept. 13.
Last month, the administration again extended restrictions barring non-essential travel at Mexican and Canada land borders until July 21. – Reuters
WASHINGTON/OAKLAND, Calif. – Thirty-seven U.S. state and district attorneys general sued Alphabet Inc’s Google on Wednesday, alleging that it bought off competitors and used restrictive contracts to unlawfully maintain a monopoly for its app store on Android phones.
The allegations about Google’s Play Store stem from an investigation involving nearly every U.S. state that began in September 2019 and have already resulted in three other lawsuits against the company. The cases threaten to force major changes to how it generates billions of dollars in revenue across its businesses, including advertising, in-app purchases and smart home gadgets.
Google said on Wednesday the litigation was about boosting a handful of major app developers that want preferential treatment rather than about helping small businesses or consumers. It maintains that unlike Apple Inc with its App Store on iPhones, Android supports competitors to the Play Store.
“Android and Google Play provide openness and choice that other platforms simply don’t,” the company said in a blog post.
The states, led by Utah, New York, North Carolina and Tennessee, argue that Google has generated “enormous profit margins” from the Play Store by engaging in illegal tactics to preserve monopolies in selling Android apps and in-app goods.
In the United States, Google Play accounts for 90% of Android apps downloaded, according to the lawsuit.
“Google leverages its monopoly power with Android to unlawfully maintain its monopoly in the Android app distribution market,” the lawsuit stated.
The states pointed to agreements already targeted in other lawsuits such as those Google has with mobile carriers and smartphone makers to promote its services.
But they added fresh claims after newly reviewing internal company documents. The states alleged that Google bought off developers so they would not support competing app stores, and that through numerous secret projects it intended to pay Samsung Electronics Co, whose rival app store posed the biggest threat, to stop competing.
Samsung did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The plaintiffs, which include California and the District of Columbia, also say Google has unlawfully mandated that some apps use the company’s payment tools and give Google as much as 30% of digital goods sales. The “extravagant commission,” compared with the 3% other marketplaces charge, has forced app makers to raise prices and consumers to spend more, the states said.
“Google Play is not fair play,” Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes said in a statement. “It must stop using its monopolistic power and hyper-dominant market position to unlawfully leverage billions of added dollars from smaller companies, competitors and consumers beyond what should be paid.”
The states want the consumers to get their money back. They also called for civil penalties and a court-imposed monitor to ensure Google eases the process for consumers, app developers and smartphone makers to use or promote alternatives to the Play Store and the official payment system for 20 years. In addition, the states seek to stop Google’s payments to Samsung and developers.
The states said on Wednesday they have not ruled out taking similar action against Apple over its App Store.
The filing drew praise from Meghan DiMuzio, executive director for the Coalition for App Fairness, which represents companies including Match Group Inc and Spotify Technology SA that oppose some of the Play Store rules.
“Anti-competitive policies stifle innovation, inhibit consumer freedom, inflate costs, and limit transparent communication between developers and their customers,” DiMuzio said.
FEARING SAMSUNG
The lawsuit said that while Google does enable consumers to avoid the Play Store, it displays “generally misleading warnings and hurdles” to discourage such activity.
Google does not break out Play Store’s financial performance but has said the unit along with several others together generated $21.7 billion in revenue last year, or about 12% of overall sales.
Google’s worries about Samsung grew after the South Korean company worked with video game maker Epic Games Inc to exclusively launch “Fortnite” for Android devices in 2018, according to the lawsuit.
Epic’s bypassing of the Play Store cost Google some millions of dollars in revenue, the states said.
Google “immediately launched multiple coordinated initiatives designed to block the emergence of a competing Galaxy Store,” the lawsuit said. “Google viewed these projects as an integrated approach to eliminating the threat of more developers following Epic’s lead.”
Last year, Epic itself sued Google and Apple separately in federal court in California over app store policies. Proposed classes of developers and consumers have joined the cases.
A judge’s decision in the Apple fight is expected in the coming weeks, and a hearing on Google’s effort to dismiss the case against it is scheduled for July 22.
The lawsuits come amid growing antitrust scrutiny of big tech companies, but regulators suffered an early blow last week when a judge dismissed a Federal Trade Commission lawsuit against Facebook Inc.
The ruling should not affect the Play Store case because it covers different circumstances, the states suing Google said.
COMPUTER-GENERATED representation of COVID-19 virions via Felipe Esquivel Reed / CC BY-SA
SYDNEY – Australia’s New South Wales state on Thursday reported its biggest daily rise in locally acquired cases of COVID-19 for the year as officials struggle to stamp out a growing cluster of the highly infectious Delta variant in Sydney.
New South Wales (NSW) reported 38 new local cases, up from 27 a day earlier, as its capital Sydney prepares for a third week of a lockdown.
“We don’t want to prolong the lockdown, we don’t want to see Sydney or New South Wales going in and out of lockdown until we have the vast majority of our population vaccinated,” NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian told reporters in Sydney.
Berejiklian implored residents to limit visits to family as data suggested the virus was spreading during such meetings, and urged people with flu-symptoms to take their entire family for COVID-19 tests due to the highly transmissible Delta strain.
She has promised this would be the last lockdown Sydney would need to endure in the pandemic although only around 10% of the country has been fully vaccinated.
Of Thursday’s cases, 26 were either in isolation throughout or for part of their infectious period, while 11 spent time in the community while they were infectious. One case is under investigation.
Total infections neared 400 amid the largest outbreak of 2021 in the state, since the first case was detected in the city more than three weeks ago in a limousine driver who transported overseas airline crew.
A strict stay-at-home order had been enforced in Sydney, Australia’s largest city and home to a fifth of the country’s 25 million population, since June 26 for two weeks restricting people’s movements and limiting gatherings.
That was extended on Wednesday until July 16 after restrictions failed to curtail the spread with officials frustrated after finding new infections linked to illegal gatherings and people flouting social distancing rules.
Australia has fared much better than many other developed countries in keeping COVID-19 numbers low, with just under 30,900 cases and 910 deaths, however, a slow vaccination rollout has taken the shine off some of this success. – Reuters
Leading software solutions company Multisys Technologies Corporation debuts the newest addition to its 24 existing digital platforms, Safify, a digital health platform.
With the guidance and expertise of Metro Pacific Hospital Holdings Inc. (MPHHI) in the development of the platform, MultiSys seeks to provide an end-to-end digital tool that allows employers to digitally manage and administer their respective vaccination programs for the workplace—from the supply chain, inventory, and vaccine administration.
MPHHI, the largest private hospital operator in the Philippines among whose hospitals include Makati Medical Center, Cardinal Santos Medical Center, Asian Hospital and Medical Center, Riverside Hospital in Bacolod, and Davao Doctors Hospital, is rolling out the platform to all eighteen (18) of its hospitals primarily in support of the MVP Group’s vaccination program and other corporate clients.
MPHHI President & CEO Augusto Palisoc Jr. says, “Healthcare is so crucial to keep our country running and to ensure public safety. The current Covid health crisis has limited us in many ways. Against all odds, the industry must adapt and see to it that healthcare remains steadfast and accessible. We, at MPHHI, recognize the importance of digital tools to speed up the delivery of vaccination services crucial to our country’s return to normalcy, which is why we have closely collaborated with MultiSys to co-develop an excellent vaccination platform, Safify.”
Safify is powered by comprehensive backend analytics that enable companies to monitor and track their company-wide inoculation initiatives, among others. Further, it is ready for third-party system integrations.
MultiSys CEO and founder David Almirol shares, “Healthcare will always be a vital and necessary component of any society. We will not be able to move forward without it. Unfortunately, the pandemic still restricts us in this aspect to a large extent. This is why we built Safify—to be able to support businesses and medical frontliners so that their vaccination initiatives will be easier, more efficient and convenient. Thanks to MPHHI for the guidance in ensuring that the platform will be as efficient and practical as possible.”
Safify fortifies MultiSys’ foray into the digital healthcare landscape. The company is the developer of HealthBox, a simplified healthcare business administration platform.
A view of nickel ore stockpiles at a mine in Sta Cruz, Zambales, Feb. 7, 2017. — REUTERS/ERIK DE CASTRO
THE MINING INDUSTRY is pushing for key policy changes that will boost the sector’s growth and help the economy recover faster from the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.
Eulalio B. Austin, Jr., Philex Mining Corp. president and chief executive officer, said the government should harmonize all national laws and local government units’ (LGU) ordinances on mining.
“While the national law allows mining, there are LGUs that issue resolutions saying no to mining in their respective areas,” Mr. Austin said during a BusinessWorld Insights forum on Wednesday.
The Philex Mining official said there is a need to lift the foreign ownership restrictions on mining under the 1987 Constitution. Foreign investors are only allowed to own up to 40% of the capital of mining firms operating in the Philippines.
“Because we are opening big capital projects, the provision is needed so that more investors would come in the country,” Mr. Austin said.
Mr. Austin announced in a recent stockholders’ meeting that Philex Mining is seeking investors for its Silangan copper and gold project in Surigao del Norte, which requires a $758-million capital investment.
The Silangan project is seen as one of the big-ticket mining projects that can help the Philippine economy’s recovery, after Malacañang lifted the ban on new mineral agreements in April.
Mr. Austin also said there is a need to develop the downstream mining industry.
“There is a need to develop the downstream industries of copper so that we could maximize or create value on the copper that we will be mining in the future,” he said.
Dante R. Bravo, Global Ferronickel Holdings, Inc. president, said the government should also consider providing “stable” incentives for major mining projects.
“We have to be open in giving incentives to big investments. The incentive has to be stable and cannot be changed midway since it is going to affect the viability of the project,” Mr. Bravo said during the same forum.
“I think the current tax regime is almost prohibitive to the industry. We are already heavily taxed. If there are more taxes to be imposed, it would attract less investments into the country,” he added.
The mining industry has to pay various fees, taxes and royalties imposed by the Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB), Bureau of Internal Revenue, LGUs and other government agencies. The MGB recently proposed imposing royalties on miners operating outside designated mineral reservation areas. At present, only those operating within mineral reservations currently pay mineral royalties of 5%.
Meanwhile, Chamber of Mines of the Philippines (COMP) Executive Director Ronald S. Recidoro, said the Philippines should extract its mineral resources “responsibly.”
“If the minerals stay underground, it has very little value. It is better if we extract it responsibly and use the benefits and revenues of mining to move our economy forward,” Mr. Recidoro said.
“It is really up to us now to have that conviction and political will to do the same. Our mineral wealth will go to waste if we do not use it,” he added.
Based on an MGB report, the value of metallic mineral output rose 14.1% to P28.91 billion during the first quarter as a result of higher metal prices.
The mining sector contributed P102.3 billion, equivalent to 0.6% of gross domestic product (GDP) growth in 2020.
Philex Mining is one of three Philippine units of Hong Kong-based First Pacific Co. Ltd., the others being Metro Pacific Investments Corp. and PLDT, Inc. Hastings Holdings, Inc., a unit of PLDT Beneficial Trust Fund subsidiary MediaQuest Holdings, Inc., has interest in BusinessWorld through the Philippine Star Group, which it controls. — R.M.D.Ochave
About 3.7 million Filipinos were jobless in May, or an unemployment rate of 7.7% from 8.7% a month earlier, according to the local statistics agency. — PHILIPPINE STAR/ MICHAEL VARCAS
By Revin Mikhael D. Ochave, Reporter
PRINCE ALLAN L. CABAUATAN, 24, lost his job as a flight attendant at Air Philippines Corp. in September amid a coronavirus pandemic.
He started a business building and selling personal computers to financially keep up.
“It was the smart thing to do because the demand for computers went up as more people worked from home,” he said in a Facebook Messenger chat.
His monthly income rose by as much as five times to P200,000 assembling PCs.
The global health crisis has left few people, if any, unaffected. The coronavirus brought many governments around the world to their knees as lockdowns forced companies to shut down.
Since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, more than 70% of startups have had to terminate contracts of full-time employees, according to the World Economic Forum.
Small- and medium-sized enterprises including the self-employed account for 90% of businesses globally and provide 70% of employment worldwide, according to King’s Business School in London.
The pandemic has also forced countries including the Philippines to simplify the business application process.
Business registrations in the first quarter reached 432,962, nearly half the full-year 2020 total of 916,163, according to the Trade department. Many Filipinos have adapted to the challenging times through entrepreneurship, it said.
Business registrations hit 637,580 in 2019.
The Anti-Red Tape Authority has vowed to continue reforms to ease doing business and cut red tape at all agencies. For one, it seeks to streamline processes in business registration through a Central Business Portal started early this year.
“This reduced the length of days for registering a business from 33 days and 13 steps to only three days,” it said in a statement last week.
One of those who may benefit from this is 31-year-old Kathleen D. Macabuhay, who started trading stocks and set up her own footwear business after losing her job as an event executive at the Makati Shangri-La Hotel.
“People were expecting the Makati Shangri-La Hotel to close because the hospitality industry had taken a hit due to the pandemic,” she said by telephone. “I was thinking ahead and I had to look for other means to earn.”
Ms. Macabuhay said her footwear business, which she started with co-workers at the hotel using their separation pay, is doing well. They sell women’s footwear through Facebook, Instagram and a Shopee virtual store.
“We knew our separation pay would not last long. Might as well invest it in something,” she added.
Ms. Macabuhay also works for a website based in the United States where virtual events such as promotions and tradeshows can take place.
“The salary at my new job is similar to what I was earning back when I was with Makati Shangri-La,” she said. “Now, I don’t have to spend time and money traveling to work. I just have to work from home from 9 p.m. to 5 a.m. since our clients are in the US.”
‘NECESSITY’ About 3.7 million Filipinos were jobless in May, or an unemployment rate of 7.7% from 8.7% a month earlier, according to the local statistics agency.
About 5.49 million Filipinos were also underemployed — people already working but still looking for more work or longer working hours — or an underemployment rate of 12.3%.
Rene E. Ofreneo, former dean of the University of the Philippines School of Labor and Industrial Relations (SOLAIR), said a number of Filipinos started a business during the pandemic out of necessity.
“Despite the pandemic and massive displacement and disruption, there are others who are surviving — not only do they survive, but also live well, he said by telephone.
The government should boost business-related subjects in senior high school to drive students to become entrepreneurs instead of taking 9-5 jobs, Mr. Ofreneo said.
He said there are opportunities in agribusiness. The state should particularly help small farmers to improve productivity and profit. Local entrepreneurs could also start a business to meet community needs.
There’s also freelancing, which lets one work independently rather than for a certain company or institution, he said.
“A good thing about freelancing and the digital revolution at the grassroots is that the economic base being built is mass-based and inclusive,” Mr. Ofreneo said. “Once the situation normalizes, the country will already have a strong base.”
He also said the country can no longer go back to normal after the pandemic. “We have a digitalization phenomenon, you need to accept that,” Mr. Ofreneo said, noting that less than half of factory workers had managed to go back to work.
“We should return to the concept that employment begins with small businesses and not the big corporations. It should be at the grassroots level,” he added.
The pandemic had forced many companies including small ones to adopt digitization and go online, King’s Business School said in a study published in March.
“Our analyses of the opportunities that entrepreneurs newly recognized in the pandemic revealed digitalization — in all its facets — as a key trend,” it said. It cited an upswing in online sales and e-commerce and greater use of technology to increase their business productivity.
Entrepreneurs had also noticed the increased readiness in society to accept technology, it said.
“For the economy, accelerated digitalization has important benefits,” according to the study. “Aside from reducing cost and increasing efficiency and productivity, it has the potential to make businesses and the economy more inclusive.”
Remote jobs let more people work and live in less expensive areas, which may help bolster their well-being. Accelerated digitalization can also support the development toward a greener economy by reducing transport and pollution.
“The new behaviors produced by the pandemic will likely persist even if herd immunity is reached,” Calixto V. Chikiamco, president of the Foundation for Economic Freedom, said in a Viber message. “The high demand for health products and services are here to stay.”
The health crisis had also forced some entrepreneurs to adapt, said Jaime Noel J. Santos, president at business school Thames International in Quezon City near the Philippine capital.
One of their students converted their uniform manufacturing business into one that makes personal protective equipment to meet demand, he said in a Viber message.
“Many micro-warehouse companies got started to serve the needs of e-commerce entrepreneurs,” he said. “They know that this is not a fad but a growing requirement since e-commerce is the new business normal.”
Ms. Macabuhay, the footwear entrepreneur, said she still plans to work in the hotel industry after the pandemic because it gives her a stable income source. But only so she could earn enough to start another business.
“I can only do that if I earn enough from a regular job. Once I save up enough, then I can open another business.”
Mr. Cabauatan, the PC builder, does not plan to go back to being a worker and wants to focus on his computer business. “It was a blessing in disguise since I would not be doing this had I not lost my job. I plan to make this my long-term business.”
MORE THAN A DOZEN business groups are pressing Congress to pass 17 priority reform bills in its third and final session which opens later this month.
Fifteen business groups representing various industries and foreign chambers wrote a letter to President Rodrigo R. Duterte advocating for the passage of 17 measures, which they say will help the economy recover from the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.
“With one year left in the current Congress, we believe the 17 measures are achievable reforms that will generate substantial impact in achieving our shared vision of inclusive growth through job generation, poverty reduction, and global competitiveness,” the groups said in a statement on Wednesday.
“These reforms will also support economic recovery and higher GDP growth in 2022 and beyond in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.”
The business groups said that Congress should pass pending amendments to the Foreign Investments Act, Public Service Act, and Retail Trade Liberalization Act as these would open up the economy to more foreign investment.
They also support the creation of the Department of Disaster Resilience and Department of Water Resources Management.
They also backed the passage of the government’s remaining tax reform packages, namely the Property Valuation and Assessment Reform Act and Passive Income and Financial Intermediary Taxation Act.
The former would broaden the property-related taxes of the government and generate more revenue for local government units “without increasing the existing tax rates or devising new tax impositions,” while the latter aims to simplify the tax structure for financial instruments.
Mr. Duterte last month asked Congress to pass these last two tax reform bills, both of which are still pending at the Senate.
The business groups also supported measures on Ease of Paying Taxes, Electric Vehicles and Charging Stations, Freedom of Information, National Land Use and Management, Open Access in Data Transmission, Philippine Creative Industries, Promotion of Digital Payments, Public Private Partnership, Rural Agricultural and Fisheries Development Financing System, and Secrecy of Bank Deposits Law amendments.
“Most of these bills have reached advanced stages in Congress and require counterpart action in the House or Senate,” the groups said.
Senate President Vicente C. Sotto III said the same, noting in a mobile message that “most of these bills are in the advance stages in the Senate plenary.”
The groups said that they sent the letter in anticipation of the President’s final State of the Nation Address and Congress opening its third regular session on July 26. Separate letters were also sent to Mr. Sotto and to House Speaker Lord Allan Jay Q. Velasco.
The business groups include Alyansa Agrikultura, Bankers Association of the Philippines, Financial Executives Institute of the Philippines, Foundation for Economic Freedom, IT and Business Process Association of the Philippines, Makati Business Club, Management Association of the Philippines, Philippine Association of Multinational Companies Regional Headquarters, Inc., and the Semiconductor and Electronics Industries in the Philippines Foundation, Inc.
Foreign chambers that have signed the position paper include the American, Australian-New Zealand, Canadian, European, Japanese, and Korean business groups. — Jenina P. Ibañez
Voters’ registration for the 2022 elections is ongoing until Sept. 30. — PHILIPPINE STAR/ MICHAEL VARCAS
THE PHILIPPINE ECONOMY may face risks to its outlook due to the upcoming 2022 elections and “pandemic fatigue,” Fitch Solutions Country Risk & Industry Research said.
“We flag risks to political stability not only due to the pandemic, but also as countries face major elections over the coming years,” Fitch Solutions Head of Asia Country Risk Anwita Basu said in a webinar.
Ms. Basu noted there may be heightened “political risks” arising from the upcoming elections in the Philippines, as well as South Korea, Australia and Japan.
The Philippines is scheduled to hold national elections on May 9, 2022. President Rodrigo R. Duterte is set to step down from office on June 30, 2022, although he has hinted at the possibility of running for vice-president.
Also, Ms. Basu said the significant rise in income inequality in the Asia-Pacific region due to the pandemic poses downside risks to stability.
“Moreover, as governments have taken on more authoritarian stances to curb the viral outbreak, anti-establishment sentiment is likely to be on the rise,” she said.
Ms. Basu said Myanmar is a “sad reminder” of how sentiment can turn against an authoritarian state and may pose a threat to the economy.
In May, Fitch Solutions lowered its growth forecast for the Philippines to 5.3% from an earlier estimate of 5.8%. This is also below the 6-7% target of the government for the year after the record 9.6% contraction in 2020.
The delay in coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccine shipments to the region has also affected the growth outlook.
“This has resulted in delays to vaccination programs for countries worldwide that are reliant on the COVAX scheme for vaccine supply. This will impact emerging markets including Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Philippines, and Malaysia,” Ms. Basu said.
The government has administered 11.71 million doses of coronavirus vaccines from March 1 to July 4, of which 8.84 million were first doses. So far, 2.869 million Filipinos or less than 3% of the population have been fully vaccinated.
The government targets to vaccinate 500,000 people daily in Metro Manila, Rizal, Bulacan, Cavite, Laguna, Metro Cebu and Metro Davao to achieve herd immunity in these high-risk areas by end-November. — L.W.T.Noble
THE TOTAL number of Filipinos swelled to 109.04 million as of May 2020, up from 100.98 million when the census was last conducted in 2015, according to the Philippines’ latest Census of Population.
The latest figures placed annual population growth for the period 2015-2020 at an average of 1.63%, slowing from the 1.72% average recorded in 2010-2015.
Of the 17 regions, six had growth rates that were roughly equal or higher than the national average: Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM, 3.26%), Calabarzon (2.48%), Central Luzon (2.17%), Central Visayas (1.88%), Mimaropa Region (1.82%), and Caraga (1.63%).
Meanwhile, Eastern Visayas posted lowest annual population growth for the five-year period at 0.5%, followed by Cordillera Administrative Region at 0.91%, and the National Capital Region (NCR) at 0.97%.
In absolute terms, Calabarzon gained the most in population with an additional 1.78 million in 2020 from 2015. Other regions that saw significant increments were Central Luzon (1.20 million), Central Visayas (685,090), BARMM (622,901), and NCR (607,209).
Calabarzon remained the most populous region with 16.20 million people, followed by neighboring NCR at 13.48 million and Central Luzon with 12.42 million. These three regions make up 38.6% of the country’s population.
The three most populous provinces were Cavite (4.34 million), Bulacan (3.71 million), and Laguna (3.38 million).
The least populous were the islands of Batanes (18,831), Camiguin (92,808), and Siquijor (103,395).
Among highly urbanized cities, Quezon City had the greatest number of warm bodies with 2.96 million people, followed by the cities of Manila (1.85 million), and Davao (1.78 million).
Among the localities in Metro Manila, Valenzuela posted the highest growth rate at 3.03% to 714,978 people. Trailing second and third are the cities of Mandaluyong and Taguig with 2.07% (to 425,758) and 2.06% (to 886,722), respectively.
Meanwhile, Quezon City recorded the slowest growth among NCR localities at 0.17% with Marikina City (0.25% to 456,059) and the municipality of Pateros (0.45% to 65,227) coming in at second and third, respectively. On the other hand, the city of Navotas posted a 0.16% decline in its population to 247,543 people. — B.T.M. Gadon
THE Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has flagged three unlicensed entities for offering unauthorized investments to the public.
In separate advisories, the regulator warned against Cloud Network/Cloud Network Marketing or www.cloudnetworkmarketing.com, Lendvest International, and Earn Cash Quarantine Lending Consultancy Services.
Cloud Network’s investment program promises investors a five percent daily payout for 44 days, on top of an earning opportunity through direct referrals.
It is not registered as a corporation or as a partnership and lacks the required license to collect investments from the public.
The SEC said the scheme of Cloud Network “shows indication of a possible Ponzi scheme, where monies from new investors are used in paying ‘fake profits’ to prior investors.”
Lendvest is also not registered with the SEC and does not have the secondary license to offer, collect, and distribute investments or securities to the investing public.
“Based on the information gathered by the commission, Lendvest entices the public to invest by offering investment packages from P1,000 up to P1,000,000 with a return of up to P23,298,090 for one year,” the regulator said in an advisory dated July 6.
Lendvest has a variety of investment packages, with programs ranging from a month’s worth of investments, three months, six months, and a year.
Meanwhile, Earn Cash is said to be headed by a certain John Mitchell Mapaye Alcantara. BusinessWorld sought comment from Mr. Alcantara via Facebook Messenger, but he has yet to respond as of writing.
The public may invest through Earn Cash for as low as P2,000. Its investment plans guarantee returns of 40% in 12 days, 50% in 25 days, 100% in 30 days, and 300% in 75 days. Investors may also earn via direct and indirect referrals.
However, the SEC flagged Earn Cash for offering investment programs without being registered with the commission. It is also not authorized to collect investments from the public as it lacks the necessary license to do so.
The corporate regulator is advising the public to stop investing in Cloud Network, Lendvest, and Earn Cash. It is also calling on those who can provide information on the three entities’ operations to reach out to the SEC.
Meanwhile, the commission is warning those who act as salesmen, brokers, or those who represent these entities by offering their programs to the investing public that they may be prosecuted and held criminally liable under the Securities Regulation Code. They may be penalized with a fee of up to P5 million and/or face 21 years of imprisonment. — Keren Concepcion G. Valmonte
The Philex Mining official said there is a need to lift the foreign ownership restrictions on mining under the 1987 Constitution. Foreign investors are only allowed to own up to 40% of the capital of mining firms operating in the Philippines. 
His monthly income rose by as much as five times to P200,000 assembling PCs.
