A total 108 delegates from wholesale travel agents from all over the world are coming to the Philippines for the upcoming 10th Philippine Travel Exchange (Phitex 2010) to forge deals with the different sectors of the local tourism industry.
Tourism Secretary Alberto A. Lim said that the delegates who will be coming in are large representations [...]

The Philippine Development Foundation-USA (PDF), newly formed US-based Filipino development group is pushing for Philippine government to grant incentives for the creation of technology business incubators and business parks in order to nurture start-up investments in commercially-viable research and development fields in drug-making, food production and software.

The real estate subsidiary of conglomerate San Miguel Corp. (SM) is planning to launch soon, the country’s first “underwater hotel.” The said project is part of the four new developments of San Miguel Properties Inc. (SMP) which will start next year, as the company’s foray into the tourism segment begins.

Cognizant, another world-leading company engaged in the technology, consulting and business process outsourcing (BPO) services is expanding its operations in the Philippines. From its present manpower of approximately 200 employees, the company said its planned expansion will accommodate as much as 600 more personnel.
R Chandrasekaran, president and managing director of Global Delivery, Cognizant said, “Within [...]

A recent survey conducted by one of the leading financial publications in Asia showed the Philippines as the third cheapest tourist destination in Southeast Asia. The survey was made by FinanceAsia, one of the leading business publications in the region, which utilized Mandarin Oriental’s rack rates as basis for the reader’s outlook.

Convergys Corp., the largest private employer in the Philippines, is planning to hire additional 3,600 new employees as it expands its five existing sites in the country to bring their total number of workforce to 25,000 by the end of 2010. Marife Zamora, country manager of Convergys Philippines, said the expansion is meant to meet [...]

The country’s power sector, including renewable energy projects, is likely to get a big boos from the World Bank (WB). WB’s private sector arm, the International Finance Corp. (IFC), is looking at pouring in more than $300 million in investment to the said industry in the Philippines.
IFC resident representatives to the Philippines, Jesse Ang, said [...]

The second Philippine-Russian business forum exhibition will be held on October 21 to 24, 2010 and will be hosted by Cebu City. The business forum, which aims to promote tourism, trade, investment and greater economic and socio-cultural exchanges between the Philippines and Russia, will take place at the Cebu International Convention Center (ICC) in Mandaue [...]

Figaro Coffee Co., a 100-percent Filipino-owned company established in 1993 whose product lines include specialty roasted local coffee varieties and various coffee-related paraphernalia. Currently, the largest Filipino-owned coffee company, with 65 coffee shop outlets nationwide, 35 of which are franchise-owned, and 30 are company-owned.
For 2010, the company plans to increase its 65 outlets by 18 [...]

The United Kingdom government plans to beef up its investment in Asia by promoting business opportunities in the region, particularly in the Philippines. UK Secretary of State for Business Vince Cable said it noted the importance of these business opportunities to the British businesses’ emerging markets. “If we were looking for growth, we should be [...]

The country’s biggest homegrown fastfood company, Jollibee Foods Corp., is expanding its operations in China this year as it plans to open 60 more new stores, which accounts for the bulk of its international expansion program. Jollibee Foods Chairman and Chief Executive Tony Tan Caktiong said during the company’s annual stockholders’ meeting, “Our foregoing expansion [...]

Texas Instruments (TI), one of the world’s leader in the semiconductor industry, has been doing business in the Philippines for more than 30 years, and the company plans to stay longer in the country. In fact, TI has earmarked $1 billion in new investments for its planned expansion of its operation in the country for [...]

One of the leading manufacturer of batteries in the Philippines is considering of putting up its own business process outsourcing facility in the Philippines. The Energizer Philippines Inc., maker of the Eveready and Energizer batteries, plans to put up a call center facilities because according to company president and managing direct Esteban Vorbeck, support for [...]

A lower fees in their remittances will be enjoyed by overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) and their beneficiaries starting on the third quarter of the year. According to the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), this will materialize once the the Philippine Payments and Settlements System (Philpass) Remit System becomes fully operational.
Remittances sent through the Philpass Remit [...]

The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) said Chinese businessmen will be arriving in the country later this month to explore trade and investment opportunities here. They will looking into different industries like mining, food and biofuels, according to DTI secretary Jesli Lapus.
The group of Chinese businessmen will stay in Manila and Cebu from May [...]

Manila Water Co. will be part of a consortium that will be formed to buy United Utilities Plc.’s wholly owned subsidiary, United Utilities Australia Pty Ltd. (UUA) and its affiliates for A$225 million. Others that will be part of the consortium are Mitsubishi Corp., Innovation Network of Japan and JGC Corp.

Homegrown fastfood giant Jollibee Foods Corp. continues to extend its presence in China as it recently acquired one of the local beef noodle there. In its disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange, Jollibee said it will be investing RMB30 million ($4.39 million) to secure 55 percent stake on the San Pin Wang restaurant chain.
Another RMB20 [...]

The North Belton Communities, a mixed-use township development in Quezon City owned by Lucio Tan’s group, was bought tycoon Henry Sy’s SM Prime Holding, Inc. A memorandum of agreement was recently signed between the Lucio Tan-led Eton Properties Philippines, Inc., Philippine National Bank (PNB) and SM Prime.
The signed MOA involves the sale of a portion [...]

One of the pioneer computer schools in the Philippines, the Systems Technology Institute (STI) Inc. is planning have a public offering and tap the equities market after the May 10 elections. STI plans to raise capital for further expansion.
STI chairman Eusebio Tanco said that they would like STI to be listed after elections to expand [...]

The Cebu Pacific (CEB) Airline is investing on 22 new aircraft as part of the $1.4 billion expansion over a five-year period, in anticipation of a 50 percent increase in the number of passengers in 2013.CEB president Lance Gokongwei said the 22 brand-new Airbus 320 aircraft will be delivered from 2010 until 2014. These are [...]