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.

A P600-million regional tobacco leaf warehouse was inaugurated recently by Philip Morris Philippines Manufacturing Inc. (PMI) at the Subic Techno Park inside the Subic Freeport Zone. The said facility cements the place of the Philippines as tobacco leaf warehouse hub of Philip Morris in the Asia Pacific region.
Armand C. Arreza, Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) [...]

It’s called BOSS, short for business one-stop shop, an initiative by the Quezon City Government that aims to lessen the burden of businessmen when securing business permit. Launched last Friday, officer-in-charge for the Business Permit and Licensing Office Pacifico F. Maghacot, Jr. said they are expecting to have at least 12,000 new businesses within the [...]

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.

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 [...]

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.

The Lucio Tan-led Air Philippines will now be known under its new brand name – Airphil Express, as it was re-launched last Saturday.
The new Airphil Express now boasts of the addition of two A320-200 aircraft in its fleet. The two A320s sports the new Airphil Express livery and configured mono-class with 177 seats will start [...]

On March 25 and 26, 2010, the first Renewable Energy Summit will be held at the Sofitel Philippine Plaza. The summit was organized and will be hosted by the First Metro Investment Corporation, in partnership with the World Bank and Asian Development Bank.
The summit will be an annual event and the organizers aim to attract [...]

The new appointment system at the new consular building of the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) is in full swing after it was launched last March 9.  The agency said around 55% of people who apply for passport daily have used the system which allow them to complete the process of applying for their passport [...]

At the Diosdado Macapagal International Airport (DMIA), the construction of the P308-million expansion of the existing terminal is in full blast and it is expected to be operation next month. According to Victor Jose Luciano, president and chief executive officer of Clark International Airport Corp. (CIAC), the newly expanded Terminal 1 will feature two passenger [...]

Salmat, an Australia-based business process outsourcing firm has been in the country since 1996, but company general manager of strategy Philip Hadcroft said they were doing mostly transactional services that served on the Philippine market.
Now, the Salmat has decided to put up an 800-seat facility at McKinley Hill in Taguig City, their first major investment [...]

The country’s largest operator of mall chains, SM Prime Holdings Inc., is yet on another expansion as it announced its plan to start the construction of its new shopping mall located within the 240-hectare South Road Properties (SRP) in Cebu 2010.
According to SM Prime chief financial officer Jeffrey Lim, the proposed shopping center will be [...]

UST Global inaugurated recently its new offshore development center in McKinley Hills, Taguig City. The new center is part of the company’s aggressive expansion plans in Asia, and is targeting to haul in $32 million revenues in its first year and catering to 2,000 clients in North America and Europe.

Food and beverage conglomerate San Miguel Corp. (SMC) recently completed the $300-million sale of the international beer business to its flagship unit San Miguel Brewery (SMB) Inc.  Both San Miguel and SMB reported to the Philippines Stock Exchange, separately, the closing of the deal. It marked the completion of the spin-off of all the conglomerate’s [...]

An increase of P1 per liter on its pump prices has been implemented by Flying V, as an effect of the increase in the world oil prices. The company based its decision on the price of Dubai crude, which is the benchmark of oil refiners.
The said commodity has gone up to $80 per barrel as [...]

A Singaporean firm is planning to invest $7.5 million in a local gaming company. Straitwey, a Singapore-registered company who is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Japan Gaming Development Organization (JGDO) and is the investment entity used by JGDO to invest into projects within the gaming industry, is investing the $7.6 million in the primary [...]

The Kepco SPC Power Corp. (KSPC), a joint venture between Korea Electric Power Corp. and SPC Power Corp, acquired a loan from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) for the construction of a major power plant in the Visayas.
The ADB has approved the grant of $120-million 12-year term loan for the construction of a 200-megawatt (MW) [...]

MoneyGram International and Smart Communications, Inc. tied up to provide families of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) the convenience of wireless “wallet” service. OFWs may now send their remittances to their families in the Philippines faster through the facility which is likened to a “cross border wallet service.”

The Philippine’s PhilWeb Corporation, together with the ISM Communications Corp., will be acquiring a controlling stake in Acentic, a European information technology company. The two companies, in their disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE), said that they made a deal with a private equity firm based in United Kingdom to acquire 65% stake in [...]