BOI promotes business opportunities for investors, to hold SIPP roadshows nationwide

Aimed at promoting investment opportunities, build connection with the country’s investors, would-be investors, and concerned stakeholders, and make more investments happen in the Philippines, the Board of Investments (BOI), the country’s lead industry development and investments promotion agency (IPA), is conducting its series of roadshows nationwide on the salient features and highlights of the Strategic Investments Priority Plan (SIPP).  

Through the BOI’s Domestic Investments Promotion Service (DIPS) and its Extension Offices, the roadshows will initially be conducted in three key cities: Cebu on July 19, Cagayan de Oro on July 26, and Davao on July 28.  More roadshows are set to be scheduled next month. 

The SIPP, a plan prepared by the BOI in coordination and consultation with the IPAs, the Fiscal Incentives and Review Board (FIRB), other government agencies administering tax incentives, and the private sector, lists the priority industries, sectors, and business projects that may qualify for investment incentives under Republic Act No. 11534 or the Corporate Recovery and Tax Incentives for Enterprises (CREATE) Act. 

The SIPP includes the scope and coverage of the priority activities and the industry tier categorization which influences the period of availment for incentives.  The higher the industry Tier categorization the longer the period of incentives availment. 

Apart from primarily providing information about the priority sectors/industries and investment opportunities under SIPP, the roadshow is also BOI’s in-person public platform to guide investors on how to apply investment projects with the BOI to avail incentives and likewise provide consultation/advisory services for those who want to understand and avail the other services of the BOI. 

The BOI SIPP roadshow is a one-day event with two parts. For the morning session, investments opportunities under the SIPP and the incentives available for qualified projects will be discussed. The afternoon session meanwhile will be for one-on-one consultations with the BOI resource persons on potential projects for registration and other investments concerns.  

The roadshow targets firms with previous projects registered with BOI as well as firms who are planning to expand their operations in the regions, regional business chambers, regional industry associations and organizations, academe, financial institutions, Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) regional and provincial offices, regional National Economic Development Authority (NEDA), and other regional government offices.   

The SIPP serves as a catalyst to shore up various industries and yield more diversified, complex, and sophisticated products and services in the Philippines.  The SIPP plays a significant role in the country’s goal of bouncing back from the economic ramifications brought about by the persisting global health crisis. The Plan also sustains the momentum towards the country’s economic recovery, as it will generate and recover jobs as well as competitively provide for the Filipinos’ basic needs. 

For more information on the SIPP, visit the BOI website: Strategic Investment Priority Plan | Board of Investments (boi.gov.ph) 

Heatwave: Ferocious European heat heads north

By Malu Cursino

BBC News

Firefighters work to contain a tactical fire in Louchats, as wildfires continue to spread in the Gironde region of southwestern France, July 17

IMAGE SOURCE,REUTERS

Fires in the south of France have ravaged more than 15,000 hectares (37,066 acres) of forests since 12 July

Western Europe faces more sweltering temperatures on Tuesday as a ferocious heatwave heads north.

In France and the UK extreme heat warnings were issued while northern Spain recorded temperatures of 43C (109F) on Monday.

Wildfires in France, Portugal, Spain and Greece have forced thousands of people to evacuate their homes.

The UK is expected to see its hottest day ever and experts say parts of France face a "heat apocalypse".

Several parts of France saw their hottest-ever days with the western city of Nantes recording 42C, the national weather office said.

Wildfires in recent days have forced more than 30,000 people to flee, with emergency shelters set up for evacuees.

Gironde, a popular tourist region in the southwest, has been hit particularly badly, with firefighters battling to control blazes which have destroyed over 15,000 hectares (37,066 acres) of land since last Tuesday.

"The idea that comes into my head is, it's a monster," Jean-Luc Gleyze, the president of the Gironde region said of the fires.

"It's a monster like an octopus, and it's growing and growing and growing in the front, in the back, on both sides. Because of the temperature, because of the wind, because of the lack of water in the air... it's a monster and it's very difficult to fight against it."

The UK had one of its hottest days on record on Monday, with a high of 38.1C recorded in Suffolk, in eastern England. Forecasters say Tuesday could see a top of 40C, which would be the highest temperature ever recorded in the country.

There were severe travel disruptions with trains cancelled and flights at London's Luton Airport suspended when part of the runway buckled under the searing heat.

On Monday, the Netherlands recorded its hottest day of the year so far. In the south-western town of Westdorpe, temperatures reached 33.6C.

And it is expected to be hotter on Tuesday, with temperatures forecast to top 39C in southern and central regions of the Netherlands.

Forecasters say the heatwave is heading north, with Belgium, Germany and Italy expected to see temperatures around 40C in the coming days.

In Spain and Portugal, more than 1,000 deaths have been attributed to the heat in recent days.

Temperatures in Portugal hit 47C on Thursday - a record for July. Most of the country has been placed under high fire danger by the national meteorological office IPMA.

Local media reports that 300 people from the northern Murça municipality have been evacuated due to the fire danger - authorities are anxious to avoid a repeat of 2017, when 66 people were killed in wildfires.

In Spain, at least twenty fires are burning out of control. A passenger filmed the moment the train he was travelling on came to a temporary halt - as fires raged on both sides of the carriage near the northern border with Portugal.

Heatwaves have become more frequent, more intense, and last longer because of human-induced climate change. The world has already warmed by about 1.1C since the industrial era began and temperatures will keep rising unless governments around the world make steep cuts to emissions.

Students not required to wear uniforms - Sara

A girl tries on a school uniform at a stall in Commonwealth Market in this photo taken on July 13, 2022. PHOTO BY JOHN ORVEN VERDOTE

By Kaithreen Cruz, Manila Times

PUBLIC school students will not be required to wear school uniforms, Vice President and Education Secretary Sara Duterte-Carpio said on Monday.

She pointed out that it is not a strict requirement for public school students to wear uniforms even before the pandemic to avoid incurring additional costs.

"All the more that it will not be required this school year given the increasing prices and economic losses due to the pandemic," Duterte-Carpio said.

School Year 2022-2023 will open on August 22, with DepEd giving schools flexibility to utilize distance learning modalities, blended learning, or full face-to-face classes until October 31.

The Education department, through DepEd Order No. 34 s. 2022, mandated all public and private schools nationwide to hold five days of in-person learning starting November 2.

Philippines: Highest Risk for climate-changed disasters

PROTECTION – An elderly woman finds ample protection from the sun and rain under an umbrella as she barely fits herself on a stool while sleeping on the sidewalk in front of the Quirino Grandstand in Manila on Monday, July 18, 2022. (Ali Vicoy)
 

Finance Secretary Benjamin E. Diokno said the Philippines, as one of the countries at highest risk for climate-related disasters, was determined to be a world leader in the fight against the crisis. And part of this role would be its initiative to transition from coal to clean energy.

ECB goes on offensive as inflation pressure up

LEADING BANK This July 7, 2022 file photo shows the headquarters of the European Central Bank in Frankfurt, Germany. XINHUA PHOTO

By Agence France-Presse

FRANKFURT: The European Central Bank (ECB) will raise its interest rates on Thursday for the first time in over a decade, but the bank is already under pressure to do more amid record inflation.

The ECB has for months been preparing the end of the era of cheap money that supported the economy through a series of crises in recent years.

To try and counteract a steep rise in prices, the bank has said it intends to raise its interest rates by a quarter point, the first such move since 2011.

The ECB already stopped its bond-buying stimulus program at the beginning of July, as it laid the groundwork for the rise.

The liftoff in rates comes in response to an unprecedented surge in prices, driven higher by supply chain bottlenecks and rising energy costs following Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Inflation in the eurozone sat at 8.6 percent in June, the highest ever recorded for the currency club and well above the ECB's 2-percent target.

The Frankfurt-based institution continues playing catch up with its peers, like the Federal Reserve, which started hiking earlier and more aggressively.

The ECB deposit rate has been negative for the past eight years, with the key rate currently at -0.5 percent.

The punitive interest rate, which effectively charges banks to park their money with the ECB overnight, was designed to encourage more lending, more economic activity and higher inflation rates.

Rate hike won't cut energy prices – ECB

Stubbornly low for years, prices are now soaring as a result of scrambled supply chains from the coronavirus pandemic and the burst in the price of food and energy caused by the war in Ukraine.

The inflation surge caught central banks, not least the ECB, off guard.

Now the central bank is aiming to lift interest rates out of negative territory by the end of September as part of a "gradual but sustained" series of hikes, according to ECB President Christine Lagarde.

In hindsight, the "cautious normalization process the ECB started at the end of last year has simply been too slow and too late," said Carsten Brzeski, head of macro at ING.

ECB to end stimulus in prelude to rate hikes

With each new data release causing new consternation, the central bank's cautious quarter-point step could lead to a feeling of "disappointment," he added.

Some ECB policymakers may push for faster action, but "it will be a balancing act between the ECB's credibility as being predictable and its credibility as a determined inflation fighter," the ING officer said.

The ECB was faced with an "impossible equation to solve," said Frederik Ducrozet, head of macroeconomic research at Pictet Wealth Management.

'Taming inflation amid war harder'

Central bankers, he added, were determined to squash inflation while "the euro area economy is on the brink of recession," circumstances under which they would normally hesitate to raise interest rates.

The outlook for the economy was clouded by the war in Ukraine with eurozone members bracing for a winter in which energy could be scarce and planning to ration supplies if Russia halts gas deliveries to the continent.

Add a weak euro against the dollar, which touched parity recently for the first time in nearly 20 years, and a political crisis in Italy and the monetary calculations became even harder, Ducrozet said.

The withdrawal of a key party from former ECB chief and Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi's governing coalition has unnerved investors, sending borrowing costs up again.

The quickly rising strain in bond markets had already prompted the ECB to respond in mid-June by speeding up the design of an instrument to fight "fragmentation" in the eurozone.

The new tool was "critical" to avoid "excessive divergence" in the borrowing costs faced by different countries and make sure monetary policy moves were felt evenly across the eurozone, ECB Vice President Luis de Guindos said in early July.

But the idea has been met with skepticism by some governing council members.

Any crisis tool should only be used in "exceptional circumstances" and under strict conditions, warned Joachim Nagel, head of the traditionally conservative German Bundesbank.