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 United States government announced the increase in its law enforcement aid to the Philippines. From nearly P495 million in 2010, the country will be getting close to P630 million in 2011, according to the US Embassy in Manila. This support will come in the form of “technical assistance, training, facilities, and supply of equipment.”

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 [...]

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 [...]

Nestlé Philippines Inc., the Philippine unit of Swiss food and beverage giant Nestlé, is not going to pull out of the country and relocate in Indonesia as earlier reported. In fact, John Miller, chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) of Nestlé Philippines, said they are investing in a new facility south of Manila.

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 [...]

A P499 seat sale, which it called the “Go Lite” is being offered by the Cebu Pacific (CEB) for select Luzon destination and another “Go Lite” package amounting to P999 is also up for Taipei seat sale. These seat sale promotions of CEB will run from June 22 to 24, 2010.

Up to P10 billion worth of stocks in the Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI) will be purchased by the Ayala Corp. Chief finance officer Delfin C. Gonzales Jr. of Ayala Corp., in a disclosure to Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) said the board has approved the subscription “to our pro-rata share in the [...]

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) said that approximately 11 million Filipino households do not have bank accounts.
BSP Governor Amando Tetangco Jr. said, “Rough estimates indicate that at the most, only one-third of our households have bank accounts,” during a conference of the Rural Bankers Association of the Philippines held recently at the Sofitel Philippine [...]

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 [...]

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.

Cebu Pacific was able to break passenger loads for April. The country’s low-fare airline flew 903,118 passengers for the previous month, which broke its own record of its best performing month, which was March 2010 with 857,041 passengers. To celebrate this, CEB announced a seat sale to select domestic and all international destinations from May [...]

The Metro Pacific Group is confident that it has won the bidding for the concession to operate the country’s longest expressway, the Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway (SCTEx). Metro Pacific Tollways Corp. (MPTC) believed it virtually clinched the hotly contested concession after it has submitted an “improved” bid package to the government. “We have submitted a final improved [...]

On April 28, the Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp. (PSALM) is expecting to receive bids from at least companies at the auction of the 246 megawatt (MW) Angat hydropower plant in Norzagaray, Bulacan on April 28. PSALM vice president for asset management and electricity confirmed that six groups are in the running.
During the [...]

Davao City is being considered to be the next big investment for the business process outsourcing (BPO) sector, as well the information and technology sector.
According to Oscar R. Sañez, CEO of the Business Processing Association of the Philippines (BPAP), Davao was ranked number 1 in their list of Top 10 Next Wave Cities 2010 because [...]

A new company may be take over the operations of the Manila North Harbor this week as the Philippine Ports Authority (PPA) lifted the order for the suspension of the turnover of said port to Manila Harbor Port, Inc. (MNPHI).
MNPHI said it received the notice of turnover from the PPA dated April 8. It has [...]

In spite of the opposition of different sectors, the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) is adamant in implementing the value added tax (VAT) on toll fees. The BIR is all set to impose VAT on toll by April 30, after deferring it for several times. “That is the plan. That is what we intend to [...]

Because of the electricity shortage brought on by a long drought, the government will ask malls to shut down to help alleviate the effect of the shortage. The government said it will be asking shopping mall, as well as some factories to consider shutting down operations for several days in order to ensure the uninterrupted [...]