Two more French-made patrol boats, which will be fielded for anti-smuggling missions in the country, have arrived at the Port of Subic Thursday, the Philippine Coast Guard announced Friday.

The pair of 24-meter fast patrol boats will complete the four patrol vessels acquired through an agreement between the Philippine Coast Guard and the French ship builder in 2014.

Officials said the vessels will be commissioned to service as BRP Malamawi (FPB 2403) and BRP Kalanggaman (FPB 2404).

According to Capt. Armand Balilo, Coast Guard spokesman, the “primary mission of the boats is to boost the country’s fight against smuggling,” adding that three of the four vessels will be jointly operated by the Coast Guard and the Bureau of Customs.

Two vessels of the same kind were delivered in August and September this year.

According to the Coast Guard, the acquisition of the patrol boats is under the contract signed by the Department of Transportation with maritime technology expert and ship builder OCEA S.A. of France “to strengthen the enforcement in maritime safety and security, and marine environmental protection.”

Similar to the first two patrol vessels, the new fast boats have maximum speed of 28 nautical miles per hour and can carry 12 crew and 16 passengers.

The first French-built boat arrived in Subic in August followed by “BRP Panglao” in September.

Coast Guard also said an 82-meter offshore patrol vessel is scheduled to arrive in August 2019.

Rear Adm. Elson Hermogino, Coast Guard commandant, said the procurement of the vessels includes training, provision of spare parts and technical assistance after the delivery date.

It can be recalled that men from the Coast Guard have been deployed to the Bureau of Customs to assist in the smuggling operations of the bureau for six months.

The Coast Guard is tasked to “assist in the enforcement of laws on fisheries, immigration, tariff and customs, forestry, firearms and explosives, human trafficking, dangerous drugs, and controlled chemicals, transnational crimes, the Customs Modernization and Tariff Act and other applicable laws within the maritime jurisdiction of the Philippines.”

Prior to this development, the two organizations also signed a pact to jointly carry out anti-smuggling operations using Coast Guard vessels.

Source: news.mb.com.ph/

Continue Reading

Investment pledges from foreign investors increased for the second straight quarter, rising 6.5 percent year-on-year to P45.9 billion in the third quarter, the government reported Thursday.

In a report, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) said total foreign investments green-lighted by seven investment promotion agencies (IPAs) from July to September grew from P43 billion in the same three-month period last year.

The seven IPAs included in the PSA report were the Authority of the Freeport Area of Bataan (Afab), Board of Investments (BOI), BOI-Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), Cagayan Economic Zone Authority (Ceza), Clark Development Corp. (CDC), Philippine Economic Zone Authority (Peza), and Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA).

IPAs grant fiscal and non-fiscal incentives to investors, which the Duterte administration wanted to rationalize under the proposed second tax package or the Tax Reform for Attracting Better and High-quality Opportunities (Trabaho) Act.

The Trabaho bill was also aimed at slashing the corporate income tax rate from 30 percent at present—the highest in Asean, to about 20 percent.

When these foreign investment pledges materialize after some time, then they are counted as foreign direct investment (FDI).

Following year-on-year increases in foreign investment commitments during the second and third quarters, the end-September haul reached P91 billion, up 8.2 percent from P84.1 billion in the first nine months of last year.

The PSA said the top three sources of foreign commitments during the July to September period were British Virgin Islands (P15.5 billion), Malaysia (P10.7 billion), and the US (P4.5 billion).

Meanwhile, the top three sectors that would receive these approved investments were the following: electricity, gas, steam and air-conditioning supply (P16.1 billion); real estate (P11.8 billion); as well as manufacturing (P7.6 billion).

The bulk of these pledges were expected to materialize in the following regions: Northern Mindanao (P15.5 billion); Central Luzon (P13.5 billion); and National Capital Region (P8.3 billion).

However, when the foreign investment approvals were combined with those from local investors, the total commitments in the third quarter declined 5.3 percent to P259.7 billion from P274.4 billion a year ago.

From July to September, Filipino firms pledged P213.9-billion worth of projects, accounting for 82.3 percent of all IPA approvals.

In terms of job generation, the total approvals were expected to create 41,797 jobs, of which the bulk or 87.6 percent would be generated by foreign-led projects.

PSA data showed foreign investors’ pledges declined year-on-year during six of the first nine quarters of the Duterte administration.

In a speech on Thursday, Finance Secretary Carlos G. Dominguez III said that “with improvements in the ease of doing business, investments are flowing into the Philippine economy.”

“The FDI inflows reached a record high of 10 billion US dollars last year, double the FDI inflows in 2015. Meanwhile, net foreign direct investments rose by 31 percent to $7.4 billion in the first eight months of 2018 from $5.7 billion during the same period last year. This reflects stronger investor confidence in the Duterte administration’s decisiveness in pushing ahead with the economic reform agenda. This also dispels the concern that our tax reform is scaring away investors,” Dominguez said.

“While we saw a dramatic 31-percent rise in foreign direct investments in the first eight months of this year, the Peza continues to claim that investments registered with the agencies are down. This can only mean they are trying to attract investments that cannot be viable without unreasonable incentives. These are not the investments we need to become a strong economy. The more meaningful investments are being made by competitive companies that do not ask for tax holidays and other incentives,” he added.

“Those who oppose the reform of the incentives program are arguing against the facts. All over the world, fiscal incentives are less important in investor decisions than efficient infrastructure and a better-educated and healthier people. We cannot fully address these more beneficial concerns if we let bureaucrats give away revenue for private profit. We need to be fiscally responsible on this matter,” according to Dominguez.

Source: business.inquirer.net

Continue Reading

The Business Permit and Licensing Office (BPLO) has revealed the list of Most Outstanding Business Taxpayers for 2018 at Rizal Triangle covered court during the flag raising ceremony of the city government employees.

For the past years, the SM group of companies has topped the first 4 spots in terms of taxes paid. Based on the gross sales of 2017, Meridien Business Leader, Inc. (The SM Store) ranked #1, Supervalue,Inc. (SM Supermarket) ranked#2, SM Prime Holdings Inc. ranked #3 and Star Appliance Center, Inc.(SM Appliance) ranked #4.

Taxes collected cover all of government’s expenditures, such as those agencies that make it possible for us to access basic necessities and services including water, power, roads, airports, and even the Metro Rail Transit.

The presence of SM, with more than 100 tenants has made a big impact in the increase of tax collection in the city. The CSR program of SM under the SM Cares is another way of giving back to the community.

The top taxpayers awardees were recognized as the Most Outstanding Business Taxpayers in the city based on their gross sales in 2017 making it a remarkable benefactor for sustaining, maintaining, and improving the public services provided by government to its citizen.

Most Outstanding Business Taxpayers from SM City Olongapo include Jollibee Foods Corp., Ace Hardware Phils. Inc., Fresh and Famous Foods, Inc. (Chowking and Greenwich), and Familyhealth & Beauty Corp.(Watsons).

Source: zambalesherald.blogspot.com

Continue Reading

Photo Credit: fortune.com

SUBIC BAY FREEPORT – Taiwanese computer giant Wistron Infocomm Corp. will reopen its manufacturing plant here after closing shop almost a decade ago, officials of the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) said.

Formerly one of the biggest export firms inside this free port, Wistron started recruiting to fill up 2,500 positions at its Subic facility.

Wistron’s return to Subic is a direct result of the emerging trade war between the super-economies of the United States and China, said SBMA Chair and Administrator Wilma Eisma on Thursday (Dec. 6)

“When other countries lose their initial advantages in terms of cheap labor or distribution cost, companies opt for Subic,” she said.

Eisma said SBMA expects more global companies affected by the trade war to consider moving to Subic or other economic zones in the country.

SBMA Labor Department manager Severo Pastor said Wistron processed more than 4,000 applications during the two-day schedule of exams and job interviews last week, with 900 workers passing the qualifying stage in the first day alone.

“They wanted HOTS—hired on the spot, so Taiwanese personnel from the company personally conducted the interviews. The SBMA labor personnel simply assisted in the second day to help process the growing number of applications,” Pastor said.

Wistron started out in 1995 as Acer Information Products (Philippines) Inc., a computer manufacturing outfit of Acer Inc.

It became Wistron in 2006 when Acer Inc. spun off its Subic operations and infused fresh capitalization of about $36 million to include a Mobile Operations Unit.

In 2008, Wistron contributed more than a fourth of Subic’s $977.84 million export total with an export production of $274.88 million, leading the top 10 Subic exporters. That was when Korean shipbuilder Hanjin, now the biggest exporter, was just a fledgling operation with $61.74 million worth of exports, SBMA says.

In 2010, however, Wistron closed its hand-held device plant in Subic, shifting all of its production here to a facility in Zhongshan, China, but leaving behind its design automation center.

The move displaced about 700 workers, some 200 of whom were reportedly sent off to a Wistron plant in the border-town facility of Juarez, Mexico.

Source: businessmirror.com.ph

Continue Reading

H3X participants doing the sandbag carry.

THE Philippines was crowned as the 2018 Spartan H3X champion after a grueling 24-hour sandbag carries and conquering all the extreme challenges within the Timberland Heights grounds. Staged simultaneously in four countries, the 71-man Philippine contingent went against the participants from Greece, Mexico, and the United States.

According to Mike Reyes, Spartan Race Director, H3X is basically all three Hurricane Heat lengths rolled into a consecutively-run event, which started at the exact same time and run simultaneously regardless of time zone.

“I’m elated and proud to be Subic Bay-Zambales-Bataan Spartan community’s lone representative in that 24-hour battle. I scored the three-point shot in the tiebreaker, so to speak, by being the fastest to do 50 burpees at one minute 50 seconds while Mexico and California did theirs around two minutes 20 seconds,” said Jimi Arthur Binoya.

Lexi Noval, one of the participants who voluntarily finished the endurance event said that her H3X experience is definitely worth it. “It’s great knowing that you can go through challenges together as a team and strengthen friendships.

Source: bworldonline.com

Continue Reading