Part of the first direct funding to export groups that was used in direct export promotions had resulted in sales of about P1.5 billion. The more lasting projects included the fish quality laboratory facilities for the tuna industry in Gen. Santos city, and institutionalizing furniture design training in Cebu and Davao.

During the same conference, Ortiz-Luis admitted that exporters have been the hardest hit segment of the Philippine economy by the lingering global recession. He said that the EDC has revised its projection for this year to a minus 16 percent decline in commodity exports, last experienced in 2001.

He ended his address by saying that the seas remain stormy and the sailing is tough for exporters but like in the past, the waters will calm for them to unload new cargoes. -- Abe P. Belena, PHILEXPORT News and Features <--back

2. Only slight improvement on poisoned air in Metro-Manila

Five years after the Clean Air Act was made into law, the dust in the air in Metro Manila has only slightly improved and regulators don’t even know if the concentration of floating poison the 13.5 million residents inhale has reached dangerous levels.

The reason found was that, the new law has been too ambitious but many of its provisions were simply not doable.

These new insights cropped out during presentations made, and the open forum of a conference called by the Air and Waste Management Association of the Philippine Section, Inc., (AWM-PS), a local affiliate of a similar organization in the United States.

Asked how safe is the air people breathe in Metro-Manila has become, Engr. Jean Rosete of the Environment Management Bureau of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) said that the concentration of particulates or dust on the air in the busiest streets of Manila where they have monitoring devices had shown that dust pollution has been going down.

She admitted, however, that the government does not yet have the capability of monitoring toxins and carcinogens that are spewed to the air by vehicles which are the number one source of air pollution in Metro Manila and other urban centers across the country.

Bangkok in Thailand, she said, already has those facilities.

Her revelations precipitated concerns among participants in light of a presentation made by Dr. Alma Bella Madrazo, one of the acknowledged experts on air pollution, who revealed that one-half of the pollutants that motor vehicles spew is the deadly, odorless gas carbon monoxide.

It was further revealed in the course of the conference that benzene, a major additive that oil companies have used as additive to gasoline that replaced lead to improve the energy efficiency of combustion engines, is a confirmed carcinogenic or cancer-causing.

The shift, FilCar foundation representative Alex Loinaz, described as jumping from the frying pan to the fire.

The situation, explained Dr. Ed Alabastro, convenor of the conference, for a more holistic study on what and where the air pollution problem in the country’s urban centers lie and for the government and stake holders to solving those problems.

Outlining the scope of the study that the Federation of Philippine Industries has initiated, Alabastro said it is an integrated approach to air quality management in the country which is holistic, based on sound science, lawful and sensitive to socio-economic and local conditions.

By zeroing in on pinpointing what really are the problems and focusing on solving the problems where they come from, may turn out a more practical approach to licking air pollution and help reverse climate change. -- Abe P. Belena, PHILEXPORT News and Features <--back

3. RP, Brazil ink pact on exchange of agri technologies

The Philippines and Brazil have forged an agreement allowing the Department of Agriculture (DA) to tap the latest technologies from the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corp. (EMBRAPA) for high-value crops, livestock, biofuels and fisheries.

In a joint statement, the DA, represented by the Philippine Agricultural Development and Commercial Corporation (PADCC), and the EMBRAPA said they have committed to start this type of cooperation with the exchange of germ-plasm of selected high-value crops and the transfer of technology on crop assessment and production estimate systems.

The agreement was signed during the working visit of President Arroyo to Brazil, demonstrates EMBRAPA’s intent to help in improving Philippine agriculture. Brazil has been sharing its latest technologies on dealing with the food crisis and climate change with developing countries.

The MOU was signed by PADCC president Marriz Agbon and EMBRAPA President Silvio Crestana.

“We have agreed to cooperate in the field of science and technology towards our common goal of promoting sustainable agricultural development and institutional strengthening in our respective countries,” the joint statement said.

Besides this agreement an association of Brazilian cattle breeders also committed to donate 2,000 doses of semen of the Girolando breed of dairy cattle to the Philippines to support the development and growth of the country’s fledgling dairy industry.

In a joint statement, the DA, represented by Secretary Arthur Yap, and the Brazilian Association of Girolando Breeders, led by Jose Donato Dias Filho, expressed their intent to cooperate with each other “in the interest of livestock development.”

Yap said the DA recognizes Brazil’s leading role as one of the major producers of cattle and other livestock worldwide. -- PHILEXPORT News and Features <--back

4. Center for trade and investments between RP and Gulf countries to be created in Manila

A center will be established in Manila to closely coordinate with its counterpart center in Bahrain in identifying business and investment opportunities in the Philippines and in the six-member Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC).

In an interview at the sidelines of the Philippines-Bahrain Business Forum held here last week, Special Envoy to GCC states Ambassador Amable R. Aguiluz V said they have already signed the memorandum of agreement for the creation of these centers.

“It’s going to be a venue for all of our businessmen who would be interested having their products sold to Bahrain and vice versa. It will operate simultaneously with the center in Bahrain. There will be focused groups that will be attending to it,” he said.

Aguiluz was confident these centers would expand and promote bilateral economic relations between the Philippines and also other GCC countries --Kuwait, Oman , Qatar , Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates.

These would play a key role in fast tracking bilateral opportunities in trade, investment, industry, agriculture, technology transfer, education, human resource, tourism, among others, he said.

Aguiluz, also the chairman of Philippines-Bahrain Business Council, said the creation of Manila-based center will be initially funded by his office, the AMA Group of Companies.

After setting up such center in Manila, they will also establish similar ones in other key cities in the country. “We always operate on the basis of scale and on the basis of presence in various areas so that we could give opportunities to our other brothers in Mindanao and the Visayas,” the ambassador noted.

During the business forum, Bahrain Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BCCI) Chairman Dr. Esam Abdullah Yousif Fakhro affirmed their commitment to boost bilateral trade and investments with the Philippines.

He also underscored the crucial role of Bahrain in serving as gateway of trade between the Philippines and other GCC countries, having the most liberalized economy in the entire Arab world.

“The Gulf region is becoming very important. We are talking about an economy in excess of $1 trillion, six member states that happen to have oil reserves which are more than 60 percent of the entire world reserves and gas reserves of around 40 percent of the world total,” Fakhro said, adding “It would be wise indeed for the Philippines to stay hand in hand with the Gulf states to promote trade and investments.”

Moreover, Fakhro said Bahrain will be hosting a meeting between the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the GCC bloc which also hopes to conclude a free trade area (FTA) agreement between them.

Apart from the Philippines, ASEAN now comprises Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Brunei Darussalam, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Vietnam, Cambodia and Myanmar.

For his part, Senen Perlada, director of the Department of Trade and Industry’s Bureau of Export Trade Promotion, encouraged local businesses to maximize trade opportunities offered by Bahrain.

Perlada identified Philippine goods for promotion to that country, including food products especially fresh bananas and pineapples, rattan and wood furniture, consumer electronics, telephone equipment, motor vehicle parts and accessories; and garments, jewelry and personal care products. -- Danielle Venz, PHILEXPORT News and Features <--back

5. Foreign investors urged to pour in money into RP’s biofuels industry

The Philippines needs to put up around 15 to 18 bioethanol plants in the next five years with a total required investment capital estimated at more than P70 billion, according to a ranking National Biofuels Board (NBB) official.

Considering the massive capital which local investors may not be able to raise alone, NBB vice chairman and Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA) administrator Rafael Coscolluela urged Bahrain investors during their visit here last week to invest in the country’s biofuels industry.

“The average investment per plant right now is going to be P4 billion for a plant of 30 million liters per year capacity. Therefore, there is a huge demand for investments,” he said, noting these projects could be undertaken through joint ventures between local and foreign investors.

Coscolluela said there is a need to establish eight bioethanol plants with an average capacity of 30 million liters each to meet the required capacity of 208 million liters of ethanol this year.

He noted the two existing bioethanol plants in Negros Occidental and Ormoc, Leyte have only a combined capacity of 39 million liters.

This necessitates the importaton this year of around 184 million liters of ethanol, most of this from Brazil, the world’s biggest exporter of ethanol, he added.

Coscolluela further said 15 ethanol plants should be built by 2011, and another 18 plants in 2014 to meet the country’s ethanol requirement by that time.

“If we do not put up the 15 to 18 plants with a capacity of 30 million liters per plant within the next four to five years, we have to continue importing ethanol,” he said.

“It would be sad that we have a law that mandates the use of bioethanol for all vehicles by the year 2011, but the Philippines will not be able to produce that biofuel. We will have to keep importing to meet the demand created by the law,” he added.

The Biofuels Act, which was signed into law in January 2007, mandates a five-percent bioethanol blend in diesel and gasoline products this year. It mandates the use of locally-sourced bioethanol components.

“For bioethanol, the major feedstocks are sugarcane and molasses. Also being studied are sweet sorghum and cassava as possible feedstocks for ethanol,” he further said.

Coscolluela expressed optimism that more investors will be enticed to put in their money in the country’s biofuels sector amid rising fuel prices in the world market.

“When it went down below $40 per barrel, it was very discouraging. But at today’s rate, oil is going for about $70, it’s beginning to look again very, very attractive,” he said.

The NBB official said incentives available for investors are zero specific tax for locally produced biofuels, exemption from value-added tax and wastewater charges and other incentives provided by the Renewable Energy Law. -- Danielle Venz, PHILEXPORT News and Features <--back