| MARKET INFORMATION | |||
| Market Closed | |||
| As of FRI FEB 03, 2012 15:30:00 PM | |||
| PSE COMPOSITE AND SECTORAL INDICES | |||
| VALUE | CHANGE | % CHG | |
| PSEi | 475857.00% | 63.51 | 1.3171 |
| All Shares | 3,210.69 | 30.69 | 0.9468 |
| Financials | 1,094.60 | 5.73 | 0.5262 |
| Industrial | 7,288.05 | 41.51 | 0.5663 |
| Holding Firms | 3,794.56 | 123.78 | 3.159 |
| Property | 1,715.70 | 32.09 | 1.836 |
| Services | 1,755.06 | 8.94 | 0.5068 |
| Mining & Oil | 26,166.65 | 31.11 | 0.119 |
| MARKET ACTIVITY | |||
| Trades |
| 30906 | |
| Volume | 11,436,399,874 | ||
| Value | 8,678,903,328 | ||
| Advances |
| 79 | |
| Declines |
| 107 | |
| Unchanged | 32 | ||
BANKO SENTRAL NG PILIPINAS
| US$ 1.00 | PhP 42.713 |
| Repo Rate | 6.25% |
| Reverse Repo Rate | 4.25% |
| Inflation Rate | 4.2%(2006=100) |
| (Dec '11) | 4.0%(2000=100) |
| 91-day T-bill Rate | 0.92% |
| Gold Buying/ troy oz. | US$1756.55 |
| Silver Buying | US$34.20 |
Treasury Department
Reference Exchange Rate Bulletin
03 February 2012
| UNITED STATES | DOLLAR | USD | 42.713 |
| JAPAN | YEN | JPY | 0.5605 |
| UNITED KINGDOM | POUND | GBP | 67.5207 |
| HONGKONG | DOLLAR | HKD | 5.5079 |
| SAUDI ARABIA | RIAL | SAR | 11.3901 |
| UNITED ARAB EMIRATES | DIRHAM | AED | 11.6296 |
| CHINA | YUAN | CNY | 6.7779 |
| KOREA | WON | KRW | 0.0383 |
| EUROPEAN MONETARY UNION | EURO | EUR | 56.1676 |
The following News Items came from PHILEXPORT News and Features
Canada's Growing Import Market offers Opportunities
Filipino exporters can further take advantage of trade opportunities offered by the Canadian market, the world's second largest country with more than 34 million population.
A market update released by the Trade Facilitation Office (TFO) Canada indicated that the Philippines only ranked eighth among the 16 TFO client countries that were successful in increasing exports to Canada despite the global economic crisis.
Philippine exports to Canada reached $888 million between 2009 and 2010. It followed Peru, Brazil, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam and Singapore.
The country's volume of exports to Canada, however, surpassed shipments of Bangladesh, Venezuela, Columbia, South Africa, Cuba, Trinidad and Tobago, Guatemala and Guyana.
"The import market is open, growing and diversified," the TFO said."Canada is highly dependent on two-way trade which accounts for 79 percent of the economy. Imports and exports comprise 31 percent and 23 percent of GDP (gross domestic product), respectively."
It said Canadian consumers are well informed and demanding, affluent but price conscious, a homeowner, health and environmentally aware, and increasingly multicultural.
"Baby boomers and double income families dominate the market, but single parent homes and seniors are also important market segments," it added.
To effectively penetrate the Canadian market, the TFO advised exporters to always do their homework first given that the Canadian market is both open and competitive.
"Price is not always a key consideration. Managing client relations and finding the right distribution channels are extremely important," it said.
Canada's top imports from Asia in 2010 include electrical machinery and equipment; motors, vehicles; nuclear reactors, boilers; furniture; toys, games and sporting goods; knitted or crocheted clothing and apparel; woven clothing and articles of apparel; articles of iron and steel; optical, medical instruments; plastics and articles; rubber and articles; footwear; articles of leather; pearls and precious stones; and organic chemicals.
Apart from these products, more and more Canadians also consume ethnic products, convenience, educational products and services, hobbies (gardening and recreation), health, specialty/gourmet, household (construction, repair, décor items, houseware, gifts and furnishings) and holiday/seasonal items. (Danielle Venz, PHILEXPORT News and Features)
Breakthrough in Abaca Yarn may Revive Comatose Textile Industry
One of the last remaining textile mills in the country has developed a way of mass producing abaca yarn out of raw fibers and started weaving the world's strongest natural fiber into top quality "maong' and other high-end textile products.
Chuck Lazaro, vice president for exports of the Asia Textile Mills, Inc. (AsiaTex) based in Calamba, Laguna, yesterday presented to top officials of the Fiber Industry Development Authority (FIDA) samples of maong and silk-like clothing materials recently produced by his company whose raw materials are up to 40 percent abaca yarn.
He said that AsiaTex started producing the abaca-based textile products only last October after four years of research, experimentation and trials made on different fibers in the Philippines that included pineapple, bananas and other indigenous fibers.
Abaca, he explained, was found by him and two scientists from the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) to be best suited in blending with synthetic yarn in the manufacture of high quality textile.
He revealed that a few foreign manufacturers of high quality jeans and jackets whose brands are already household names worldwide, have approached his company for the exclusive use of abaca-based textile in making their high-end garment products.
He and his partners, have not entered into supply contracts with those branded jeans makers as they intend to market their new products as a distinctly Filipino textile. He wants "abaca" jeans to be known as such in the global marketplace.
The expert in textile manufacturing who learned his skills in Manchester, England and Osaka, Japan, admitted though that for the moment, his products are not yet cheap enough to hit the mass market.
One stage of the production process, that of processing raw abaca fibers into paper-thin tapes, is still done in Japan. The tapes are then re-imported by his company to be processed further into yarn, then woven and dyed in textile form.
His plant in Calamba has a capacity of 100,000 yards a month of textile which could supply a big slice of the clothing needs of 100 million Filipinos. AsiaTex is now the chief supplier of police and military uniforms in the country.
The abaca yarn he produces can also be used as raw materials for small hand-weaving textile and garments makers, knitters and other users of garments raw materials that presently import their inputs.
He said that if revived with abaca fiber as its main raw material, the local textile industry can create up to a million local jobs in the foreseeable future. (Abe P. Belena, PHILEXPORT News and Features)
DCs Urged to Focus on Value, not Volume of Exports
Focusing on the value of exports rather than simply their volume is a key means for developing countries (DCs) to survive and prosper in times of economic crisis, said Patricia R. Francis, Executive Director of the International Trade Centre (ITC).
A focus on value required long-term thinking, ensuring equity and inclusiveness, and being innovative in seeking new opportunities through diversification, Francis said.
"In a time of limited resources - financial, food and natural - it is essential to think "value" if we are to overcome the challenge of access to these scarce resources, and ultimately to address poverty" , she said.
She was addressing the opening session of the 44th annual meeting of ITC's Joint Advisory Group (JAG), which brings representatives of its 192 member countries together to review the activities of the organization and to consider its future plans. ITC is a joint agency of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and the World Trade Organization (WTO). The session was also attended and addressed by UNCTAD Secretary-General Supachai Panitchpakdi and WTO Director-General Pascal Lamy.
Supachai suggested that in the year ahead, collaboration should focus on improving trade facilitation to enhance trade competitiveness; improving trade support institutions and the business environment; trade intelligence; the interface between environmental issues and trade policy, with a particular focus on the natural resource-based sectors, including organic food; improvement of supply chains; and the integration of regional and global value chains.
There was also a need to concentrate on obstacles facing African small and medium-sized enterprises in entering global value chains and on support to public-private dialogue on the implications of European partnership agreements, especially those concerning trade in services, competition policy and trade and investment.
Turning to Aid for Trade, Supachai said the initiative was critical for developing countries, and particularly least developed countries (LDCs), for the proper functioning of their productive and export capacities and long-term competitiveness. He welcomed ITC's moves to filter all projects and programmes through the Aid for Trade perspective and its concentration on the private sector.
Lamy said that reports WTO was receiving indicated that while trade finance market conditions in most regions of the world had improved, "in Africa the situation is still dire and more support is needed. ITC's support in this regard will be highly appreciated."
Ms. Francis said the agency's strategic priorities for the coming year were to escalate the pace and improve the quality of the delivery of ITC programmes, emphasizing the in-country ownership of these projects, to continue to build a robust results-based management structure and to continue to collaborate with UNCTAD, WTO and other United Nations agencies on the Aid for Trade initiative to work towards achievement of the Millennium Development Goals.
At the operational level, Francis said that ITC would seek to expand access for beneficiary countries to global supply chains by engaging further at market-destination level, especially with multinational corporations; enhance the cross-cutting areas of gender, environment, sustainability and global partnerships; roll out a new ITC Benchmarking Programme; enhance the reach and impact of publications and global public goods; and launch a new website and client relationship management system to better communicate with beneficiaries. (ITC Newsletter, PHILEXPORT News and Features)
NCC Continues to Push for Policy on Cha-Ro
The National Competitiveness Council (NCC) will continue pushing for a policy on chassis roll-on roll-off (Ro-Ro) in support of the ASEAN Ro-Ro agenda of President Aquino.
Henry Basilio, the co-champion of the NCC Infrastructure Working Group, noted that imperative to the success of the ASEAN Ro-Ro initiative is the issuance of an executive order (EO) that would make chassis Ro-Ro (Cha-Ro) part of the Ro-Ro service.
Basilio said the Philippines must allow the trailer trucks to be part of the Ro-Ro transport system, as done by other countries.
Meneleo Carlos, also the co-chairman of the NCC Infrastructure Working Group, said Cha-Ro will allow export-import containers to be transshipped domestically through Ro-Ro at a lower cost.
The Joint Foreign Chambers (JFC) of the Philippines likewise believes that the Cha-Ro policy can help remove unnecessary as well as unauthorized fees affecting Ro-Ro traffic.
It has recommended amending the Ro-Ro policy to include chassis Ro-Ro as well as ensuring that Ro-Ro bills of landing are more transparent.
Meanwhile, Carlos cited the need for the Philippines to increase its infrastructure spending to five to 10 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP).
The Philippines spends a lower percentage of GDP on infrastructure than competing ASEAN economies. Its public sector infrastructure budget has been consistently below three percent of GDP.
"We want (implementation of) infrastructures to go on. The government knows what they want to do. I think, it is just a matter of implementing these, so more and more investments will be poured into infrastructure projects," he noted.
The government late last year presented to investors ten priority infrastructure projects for public-private partnerships (PPP). But so far, it only auctioned off the Daang Hari Road linkup to the South Luzon Expressway (SLEX) project.
The project involves the construction, operation and maintenance of a four-kilometer road linking Daang Hari Road in Cavite to the South SLEX. (Danielle Venz, PHILEXPORT News and Features)
Software System Helps Fashion Firms Cut Costs, Better Serve Markets
Industry players in the fashion retail industry can consider utilizing an enterprise software system designed to help them lower costs and serve their markets effectively.
"With Lawson for Fashion, you can make your organization more agile, improve your time-to-market and turn inventory into cash transfer," said Lawson, a leading provider of enterprise resource planning software and solutions.
The solution is a comprehensive integrated business information system that covers the main business processes in the fashion retail industry.
These include product development, demand management, customer relationship management, planning, sourcing, raw material procurement, production, warehouse management, distribution and finance.
Lawson said the system streamlines the development of new products and the introduction of new collections to help shorten the firms' time-to-market, improve quality and reduce product development costs.
"It improves the accuracy of your demand projections, leading to higher customer service levels and reduced inventory," it noted in a statement.
Apart from these business processes, the system also offers integrated business intelligence and performance analysis to enable more effective decision making with alerts for exception conditions.
It is an integrated concept to consumer solution where fashion companies can easily produce logical analyses to better serve the luxury market demands.
"The result is better control of inventories, better control of costs, better margin analysis, as well as better channel management," Lawson said.
Lawson provides software and service solution to 4,000 customers in manufacturing, distribution, maintenance and service sector industries across 40 countries. (Danielle Venz, PHILEXPORT News and Features)
DTI Jumpstarts Industrialization Strategy
The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) has finally jumpstarted the search for a cohesive industrialization strategy for the Philippines by calling key leaders of the manufacturing, industry and agribusiness sectors to what organizers called the 2012 Strategic Industry Development Forum held at the penthouse of the Board of Investment building in Makati.
It was the first initiative to hammer out an industrialization strategy for the country after the import-substituting industrialization strategy initiated by President Macapagal and continued by President Marcos collapsed towards the dying years of a martial law regime.
No industrialization strategy was crafted and pushed by the government since after Marcos was booted out of office while other East Asian nations initially led by Japan carved their own economic miracles by transforming their agrarian economies into industrializing dragons.
This time around, trade Undersecretary Adrian Cristobal, Jr. who presided over the forum, told industry leaders that the government will not be writing the strategies of the key industries as it did in the past. The sectoral groups will have to come out with their own strategies while the government will just be lending a hand.
The government drawn industrialization programs of the past did not fly, he noted, because industry did not approve of them.
"You know your industries better than we do," Cristobal said, as he cited lessons learned from the past.
When asked during the open forum if there is any funding to help out the smaller groups craft their industry development plan and programs, Cristobal answered DTI will help them look for some funding as different international development agencies have shown interest in the crafting of sectoral development plans.
It turned out that only a few from the group led by the multi-billion dollar semiconductor and electronics industry in the Philippines have developed their strategies and tactics for at least one decade. Many more want to make their own while some were still in the dark on how to go about it.
In his presentation, Semiconductor and Electronics Industry of the Philippines president Ernie Santiago revealed that the industry bankrolled the forging of a strategic plan for the group with minimal help from government. Electronics is, so far, the most successful industry in the country today although it started only in the early 90s.
Crafting of a national industrialization plan under the present administration was first broached by the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry during the Philippine Business Conference in October 2010.
It was followed through by the Joint Foreign Chambers of Commerce in the Philippines in its Arangkada advocacy program while late last year, the Federation of Philippine Industries organized the first ever Manufacturers and Producers Summit to lay the ground works for a national industrialization program.
In that forum, an Asian Development Bank economist had revealed his findings that although the Philippines has been growing briskly for the past 20 years, it did not help any in solving chronic joblessness and mass poverty because the economy was only limping forward on one foot -the services sector.
In all those years, the ADB expert said the industrial sector remained shallow and stagnant. – (Abe P. Belena, PHILEXPORT News and Features)
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