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  1. Join Date
    Aug 2004
    Posts
    22,705
    #21
    Quote Originally Posted by yebo View Post
    so kung worst country ang pilipinas to do business in MINING, ok lang sa akin.

    bago tayo mag-mina dapat may policy na at least 50% ng miminahin na minerals ay dito sa pilipinas ipro-process at i-process na finished product. di dapat puro ores lang ang ine-export. kung yan magagawa dun lang talaga makikinabang ang pilipinas sa mining.

    pero pag i-export lang 100% ang mga ores, kalimutan na lang natin at hindi naman tayo ang makikinabang dyan kundi mga dayuhan lang.
    Let's hope that push by the PNoy administration for local processing produces results. It's decades late, as it is.

    Ang pagbalik ng comeback...

  2. Join Date
    Sep 2003
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    25,039
    #22
    I doubt anyone will bite to the idea of processing ores locally. The Philippines is not the center of the universe and there are other countries who are more interested in doing business, something that has been going on for decades. Kaya the Philippines is left behind to wallow in its pride...

    Africa Rising: Sierra Leone's iron industry gets back in business


    Sierra Leone saw its first shipment of iron ore out of the country in nearly 30 years, and just 14 months after the African Minerals company launched its mining project.

    African Minerals, a London-listed company, has shipped the first batch of iron ore from its mine in central Sierra Leone, marking the war-battered country’s first export of the commodity in nearly 30 years.

    Sierra Leone’s president, Ernest Bai Koroma, called the shipment a “significant milestone” for the West African nation as it looks to establish itself as a major player in the mining industry.

    “Its achievement is further evidence that the redevelopment of Sierra Leone and its economy continues to progress,” Mr. Koroma said.

    The 40,000 metric ton shipment, which left the deep-water port at Pepel last week, is now on its way to China. The ore will soon be in the hands of Shandong Iron and Steel Group, the world’s ninth-biggest steelmaker, which is based 250 miles south of Beijing.

    Under a deal negotiated over the summer, Shandong has agreed to pay $1.5 billion for a 25 percent stake in the African Minerals project. The deal, which should be approved by Chinese authorities before the end of the year, also guarantees Shandong a 25 percent take of the mine’s output.

  3. Join Date
    Nov 2005
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    45,927
    #23
    yep China is investing heavily in Africa

    they even have something called China-Africa Development Fund

  4. Join Date
    Dec 2005
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    39,162
    #24

    Ho... hummmm.... :sleepy:

    15.0K:smoke:

  5. Join Date
    Sep 2003
    Posts
    25,039
    #25
    Yeap, same ole reasons...Who need them anyway.

    Philippines not eligible to join Trans-Pacific Partnership -- U.S. - InterAksyon.com

    MANILA, Philippines - The Philippines is still not eligible to join an exclusive United States-led regional trade bloc which aims to bring tariffs down to zero by 2015, a U.S official said here late Tuesday.

    Philippine Constitutional restrictions on foreign ownership and local economic policies are seen as major impediments to the country's membership to the TPP, where fellow Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) like Singapore, Brunei, Malaysia and Vietnam are members.

    Other countries that have joined the TPP, a multilateral free trade agreement that aims to further liberalize the economies of the Asia-Pacific region, are the U.S., Chile, New Zealand, Australia, Peru and Japan.

    TPP's coverage includes trade in goods, rules of origin, trade remedies, sanitary and phytosanitary measures, technical barriers to trade, trade in services, intellectual property, government procurement and competition policy.

  6. Join Date
    Sep 2003
    Posts
    25,039
    #26
    I guess this goverment don't get it. Investors don't like rule changes mid game...

    MANILA, Philippines – The group that President Benigno Aquino III had tasked to draft his administration’s new policy on mining has submitted its recommendations to Malacañang, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) said on Tuesday.

    Leo Jasareno, director of the Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB) earlier told InterAksyon.com that the draft executive order containing the new mining policy would push for the declaration of more mineral reservations – a move that would raise the government’s share in the business from the current two percent excise tax to a total of seven percent, including a five percent royalty on the output of mineral reservations.

    The government’s share in mining revenues has been a sticky point for fiscal authorities, given the huge windfall the industry enjoys amid the robust appetite for mineral resources by China and other fast-growing developing countries.

    The country has 31 operational mining projects, all of which could be converted into mineral reservations. “This will increase government’s share to more than P6 billion a year,” Paje said.

    He expects no opposition to the planned conversion of existing mining projects into mineral reservations, saying that 11 of the 31 operational projects already pay five percent royalty on top of the two-percent excise tax.

    “If these companies are willing to pay additional five percent royalty, why would the other companies oppose it? Imagine how much revenue we can generate if we can also charge the other 20 large mining firms,” Paje said, adding that the Chamber of Mines of the Philippines has endorsed the collection of a higher royalty.

  7. Join Date
    Sep 2003
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    25,039
    #27
    Only a handful of big local companies are left to invest practically every sector where foreigners are banned...

    The booming PHL's missing link - foreign investors | Economy | GMA News Online | The Go-To Site for Filipinos Everywhere

    The booming PHL's missing link - foreign investors
    Rosemarie Francisco and Stuart Grudgings, Reuters December 19, 2012 5:10am


    The gathering had the air of a post-mortem. About 100 executives and government officials listened quietly as Guillermo Luz poked holes in the Philippines' fairytale economic revival.


    Luz, head of the Philippines' National Competitiveness Council, projected a deck of slides onto two pull-down screens that showed the fast-growing Philippine economy slipping in the World's Bank's "Ease of Doing Business" index to 138 out of 185 countries, near Tajikistan and Sudan.

    "It's a lousy neighborhood," he said of the two-notch fall this year. "I do not want to live with that ranking."

    As the Philippines gallops ahead with the strongest economic growth in Southeast Asia and one of the world's best-performing stock markets, its shortcomings are being laid bare, including stubborn problems that have already started to undermine its economic renaissance.

    While foreign funds have poured into Philippine assets this year, driving the main stock index up around 30 percent to a succession of record highs and lifting the peso currency about 7 percent, foreign direct investment (FDI) remains embarrassingly low.

    Total FDI is on course to hit around $1.5 billion this year -- about half its level in 2007 and less than the average $1.7 billion received every month in remittances from Filipinos overseas.

    That is only about 3 percent of the total that flowed last year to a group of five peer economies including the Philippines in the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

    In his presentation in Manila's Makati business district, Luz highlighted the Philippines' lowly ranking in a range of categories, from "paying taxes" (143rd), to "starting a business" (161st) and "resolving insolvency" (165th).

    Since coming to power in 2010, President Benigno Aquino has made headway against long-standing problems of corruption, shaky public finances and low infrastructure investment that earned the country the unwanted sobriquet of the "sick man" of Asia.

    But he has yet to show his government can translate the ******* of hot money and improved market confidence that is also fuelling a property boom into real gains such as an expansion of higher-paying jobs and better transport links.

    Calls by congressional leaders to loosen constitutional restrictions on foreign ownership have met with a lukewarm response from Aquino, a scion of an elite family whose mother, democracy icon Corazon Aquino, passed the 1987 constitution as president.

    "I do not believe that foreigners would be that foolish to come here and put their money in business," Juan Ponce Enrile, the Senate president who is calling for the constitution to be revised, told Reuters. "They are at the mercy of local people who are not quite familiar to them. That is to me the reason why we lag in investment attractiveness in Asia."

    "SALESMAN IN CHIEF"

    The absence of FDI is a missing link that raises doubts over how much has really changed in the nation of 96 million people, where many an investor has been stung by copious red tape, unpredictable policymaking and graft.

    Aquino has vowed to change the country's tarnished reputation among foreign investors, billing himself as the country's "salesman in chief". But to do so he needs to tackle vested business interests who benefit from a protected domestic market. So far, there are few signs he is doing so.

    The constitution and current rules allow foreign investors to own no more than 40 percent in most industries and bars foreigners entirely in areas such as media and the practice of licensed professions such as engineering, law and medicine.

    From 2000 to 2011, net FDI to the Philippines totalled $18.9 billion, according to United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, less than a third of what Singapore attracted in 2011 alone. As a proportion of the economy, the Philippines' net FDI stood at 0.6 percent last year, compared with 2.2 percent in Indonesia and 6.2 percent in Vietnam.

    Strong foreign investment has been a vital ingredient in the rise of better-off Asian neighbours like Malaysia and Thailand, boosting job creation and deepening technological capabilities.

    Foreign executives here are quick to complain there has been little concrete improvement on the ground, despite a surge of money into financial markets and credit rating upgrades on the back of improving fiscal health and lower borrowing costs.

    "For me it's extremely frustrating," said Hubert D'Aboville, former head of the European Chamber of Commerce.

    "We should welcome foreign investment, giving them the majority of 51 percent or 100 percent. What is important is to create jobs. We are not creating jobs."

    EXODUS OF WORKERS

    The Philippines has among the highest jobless rates in Southeast Asia at around 7 percent, helping to fuel an exodus of about 10 million Filipino workers in total that has yet to reverse course or even slow significantly.

    Officials close to Aquino say he recognises the need to attract more foreign investment, but is wary of broaching a reform of the constitution that could open up a complex, messy and energy-sapping political process.

    "I don't think it's going to be touched for now," Budget Secretary Florencio Abad, who is also vice president of Aquino's party and one of his close advisers, told Reuters.

    "You create another uncertainty. Investments are coming in anyway, predominantly by local guys."

    Combined investment by the public and private sector grew an annual 7.9 percent in the first nine months against just 1.1 percent a year earlier, with more than half made up of investments in machinery and equipment.

    While policy transparency is widely seen as improving under Aquino, the Philippines' volatile political and legal systems regularly throw up unpleasant surprises for foreigners.

    Aquino's government has halted new mining projects, stalling development of an estimated $850 billion in mineral reserves, until Congress approves a mining tax reform -- a vote that is unlikely to take place before May 2013 mid-term elections.

    In October, Manila added to restrictions on ownership of real estate, lending firms and professions.

    Meanwhile, the Securities and Exchange Commission is looking at expanding the 40 percent foreign ownership limit to apply to all classes of shares in a company, rather than just common or voting shares, following a Supreme Court ruling last year that telecoms firm PLDT had breached the cap.

    "The Philippines will be shooting itself in the foot because it will severely restrict the available shares for foreigners," said Francis Ed Lim, managing partner of the Accra law firm and a former head of the stock exchange.

    TWO PHILIPPINES

    While service sectors such as call centres, retail and tourism are growing strongly, the manufacturing sector - an engine of development in countries like Vietnam and Thailand - struggles to compete with neighbours and attract investment.

    Ford Motor Co announced in June it was closing its Philippine production factory, citing an inadequate supply network and a lack of economies of scale.

    Foreign executives here tell a tale of two Philippines. One is the country's special export zones, where companies can set up wholly owned units easily and receive incentives and efficient services as long as they ship their output abroad.

    Total investments by local and foreign firms in economic zones totalled nearly 660 billion pesos ($16 billion) by the end of 2011, more than doubling since Aquino took office in 2010.

    The other Philippines is encountered when companies try to tap the domestic market, running a gauntlet of heavy bureaucracy, local government corruption and sometimes troublesome partnerships with Filipino firms.

    Companies have to go through 16 separate procedures to start a business in the Philippines, compared with three in Singapore and nine in Indonesia, according to the World Bank report.

    Japanese firms have rekindled their long-dormant interest in the Philippines this year, prompted by rising wages in China and Beijing's territorial dispute with Japan. Still, a potential flood of money has been slowed by ownership limits and other restrictions, said Takashi Ishigami, president of Japanese trading house Marubeni Corp in the Philippines.

    Marubeni is teaming up with a local firm to bid for a $1 billion railway project, among at least eight major Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) that make up Aquino's flagship plan to improve infrastructure.

    But Ishigami said Marubeni was only supplying equipment as part of the bid, and had been deterred from taking an operational role by the government's refusal to guarantee rail fares. That shortcoming would likely deter Japanese firms from bidding for other PPPs, he said.

    "The Filipino PPP is far away from our standard." — Reuters
    Last edited by Monseratto; December 19th, 2012 at 08:20 AM.

  8. Join Date
    Jan 2005
    Posts
    6,059
    #28
    Quote Originally Posted by Monseratto View Post
    I guess this goverment don't get it. Investors don't like rule changes mid game...
    That's why they're hesitant about setting up businesses here.

  9. Join Date
    Oct 2008
    Posts
    1,093
    #29
    Of course poknoy isn't going to touch this.

    He's chummy with the local big guys. They don't want competition.
    Last edited by jave; December 19th, 2012 at 10:27 AM.

  10. Join Date
    Sep 2003
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    25,039
    #30
    http://www.rappler.com/business/1822...stellar-growth

    Unemployment persists despite stellar PH growth
    BY CAI ORDINARIO
    POSTED ON 12/19/2012 6:59 PM | UPDATED 12/19/2012 8:38 PM

    MANILA, Philippines - After 3 quarters of higher-than-expected economic growth, the country's unemployment and underemployment rates remained at high levels, according to the National Statistics Office (NSO).

    In its latest Labor Force Survey (LFS), the NSO said the country's unemployment rate declined to 6.8% in October from 7% in July. This, however, was still higher than the 6.4% rate recorded in October 2011.

    The country's underemployment rate, on the other hand, dropped to 19% in October 2012, after registering a high of 22.7% in July 2012. The October figures was almost the same as what was seen in the same month last year.

    In absolute terms, the number of unemployed Filipinos increased to 2.8 million in October 2012 from 2.6 million in October 2011.

    The number of underemployed Filipinos or those looking for longer work hours or additional employment, declined to 7.2 million in October 2012 from 7.4 million in October 2011.

    "Majority (56.2%) of the total underemployed persons were visibly underemployed or working for less than 40 hours during the reference week. Those working for 40 hours or more accounted for 42.2%. Less than one-half (44.3%) of the underemployed were working in the agriculture sector and around two-fifth (40.5%) were working in the services sector. The underemployed in the industry sector accounted for 15.2%," the NSO said.

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PHL tops 'worst countries' for doing business in Asia--CNBCP