President Aquino to invite potential investors
to invest in the Philippines during APEC Summit
BALI, Indonesia) President Benigno S. Aquino III
will invite the international business community to “take a look and invest
further in the Philippines” during his attendance to the 21st Asia Pacific
Economic Cooperation (APEC) Leaders’ Summit that is being held here,
Communications Development and Strategic Planning Secretary Ramon Carandang
said on Saturday.
In a press briefing, Carandang told reporters
that the President, who will arrive here on Sunday (October 6) will take all
opportunities to showcase the Philippines as the best investment location in
the region in order to drive up economic progress further.
He said the President will highlight the reforms
implemented by his administration to weed out corruption in government and
which in turn has increased confidence in the country.
“We’re going to be talking about inclusive
growth. President Aquino is going to talk to the international business
community and other world leaders. We are going to be showing that the reforms
we have undertaken over the last three years have borne a lot of fruit in terms
of increased confidence in the Philippine economy and the management of the
economy,” Carandang said.
And as usual, we will be asking people to come
take a look and further invest in the Philippines. As you know, we’ve seen
rapid growth in the last three years but we are not happy that the growth has
not as inclusive as we want. We have social interventions and you know all
about it: healthcare, education, CCT (conditional cash transfer), but we feel
that we need to make a bigger push for investments because investments is
really what is going to sustain the economic momentum that we have,” he added.
“So, as always, the President is going to take
every opportunity to meet with world leaders and international business
community to push for investments in the Philippines,” Carandang further said.
He declined to enumerate which particular
investment was being targeted by the President but said that “there are always
good prospects.”
“Even when the President does not go overseas,
you have the economic team going overseas, and they have been doing this
throughout the year. So really we do hope to be able to push for more
investments for the coming years,” Carandang said. PND (rck)
Palace joins World Teachers’ Day observance
Malacanang joined the global observance of World
Teachers’ Day Saturday, October 5, as countries around the world highlight the
vital contributions of teachers to development.
“Makikibahagi kami sa selebrasyon ng Department
of Education at sini-celebrate natin ngayon ang World Teacher’s Day,” Deputy
Presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte said in a radio interview over dzRB
Radyo ng Bayan.
“Apart from our parents, ang mga teachers natin
ang isa doon sa mga tao sa ating mga buhay na nagkaroon ng malaking
impluwensiya sa atin. So let’s all look back and recall ang mga favorite
teachers natin at pasalamatan natin sila ngayon for World Teacher’s Day.”
Valte said the Palace joins the Department of
Education in celebrating the World Teacher’s Day. DepEd was holding a program
at the PhilSports Arena to recognize teachers who committed exemplary deeds in
guiding and honing the skills of their students.
The Philippines celebrates both National
Teachers’ Month and World Teachers’ Day, starting on September 5 of each year.
Among DepEd’s activities include free health services to public school teachers,
award presentations, book fairs, cultural shows, singing tilts, tree-planting,
arts and crafts programs, museum tours, concerts, and conferences.
The event at the PhilSports Arena in Pasig City
is the culmination of these activities.
Through the joint efforts of the United Nations
Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and International
Labour Organization, the 29th Session of UNESCO General Conference adopted a
recommendation that culminated to the 1st World Teachers’ Day observance on
October 5, 1994.
UNESCO continues to craft global standards for
the teaching profession, taking into account teachers shortage, need for better
trained teachers, better quality education, and the role of teachers in
developing globally minded citizens.
This year’s global observance has for its theme
“A Call for Teachers," which focuses on UNESCO's work on quality teachers
for global citizenship and cultural diversity.
Teachers develop learners’ abilities to build a
sustainable future with citizens who are able to take action in their own
communities and contribute to global challenges. PND (as)
Moody’s says stable funding conditions helped
Philippines earn new credit upgrade
BALI, Indonesia) Moody’s Investor Services said
on Saturday that the Philippines’ stable funding conditions was one of the
reasons the global credit watchdog upgraded the country’s sovereign rating
recently.
In an interview with the Philippine media
delegation covering President Benigno S. Aquino III’s attendance to the 21st
Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Summit here, Moody’s Senior Analyst
Christian De Guzman said the Philippines’ ability to withstand the dreaded
taper talk “point to the country’s relative lack of vulnerability to external
financial shocks, such as those arising from the anticipated tapering by the US
Federal Reserve of its quantitative easing policy.”
He said the Philippines’ ability to withstand
this “stress test” have allowed financing conditions for both government and
private sector to remain stable.
“Last Thursday (October 3), Moody’s upgraded the
Philippines’ investment rating to Baa3 from Ba1 with a positive outlook citing
the country’s high economic strength, moderate institutional and fiscal
strengths and low susceptibility to event risks,” De Guzman said.
“We upgraded the Philippines to BAA3 with a
positive outlook this Thursday and concludes a review that was announced on the
25th of July and during the review, we found that many of the trends that
prompted the review remained intact namely: the sustainability of high growth,
ongoing physical debt consolidation and lastly political stability,” he added.
“During this time over the past few months,
we’ve also seen an important stress test that we believe the Philippines had
passed very well and that was the taper-talk that plagued emerging markets and
the Philippines’ financing conditions for both the government and private
sector have remained stable throughout that period and that points to: decrease
in vulnerability versus other emerging markets so we believe that the
combination of all these factors justified the upgrade as well as the positive
outlook,” De Guzman further said.
He said that a new credit rating may be given by
Moody’s in the next 12 to 18 months.
“Usually, when we upgrade or downgrade it’s
usually to a stable outlook. In this case, it wasn’t a stable outlook, (it was)
a positive outlook signaling that over the next 12 to 18 months, there is a
good chance that we may indeed move again to perhaps Baa2, which will put the
Philippines ahead of its Baa3 peers in the region such as India or Indonesia,”
De Guzman said.
Malacanang welcomed the credit upgrade saying
the move was an affirmation of the continuing confidence of the international
community in the fiscal management of the Aquino administration.
“The pleasant surprise was that we were also
given a positive outlook; meaning, the prospects of another upgrade are quite
positive as well,” Presidential Communications Development and Strategic
Planning Office Secretary Ramon Carandang said in a press briefing on Thursday.
“This will have implications or has already had
implications for our credit standing, but this sort of just formalizes it. It
is a continuation of the confidence that the international community has in the
fiscal management of President Aquino and his team.” PND (rck)
