by anyajulia | Nov 19, 2009 | Foreign Exchange, Headlines, Major Events
The Arroyo Administration’s Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) gets the needed boost as World Bank grants US$ 405 million loan to support poverty reduction.
The Washington-based lender said that the loan grant will strengthen the capacity of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) as the project implementer and as a social protection agency, finance part of the new conditional cash transfer (CCT) program, and establish a national household targeting system to identify the poor and improve targeting in social protection programs.
The program is focused on the poor families in the various municipalities and provinces of the country and it is the DSWD that chooses the program beneficiaries through the conduct of a survey called the Proxy Means Test that is conducted to determine the poorest of the poor families.
Transfers to some 376,000 households are covered by the World Bank loan, the rest being financed from the Philippine government’s own budget resources. (PIA)
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by anyajulia | Nov 19, 2009 | Headlines, Local News / Bohol Balita
The 4th OTOP (One Town, One Product) Visayas Island Fair kicks off in Cebu.
Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) Undersecretary for Regional Operations and Development Group Merly M. Cruz said the OTOP Fair, now on its fourth year, has immensely help micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) not only in opening market opportunities but also in improving the quality of their products.
Last year, the annual Visayas Fair generated P26M in sales with 105 participating exhibitors.
DTI-7 Regional Director Asteria Caberte said that due to the increasing popularity of the annual trade fair, they now encounter a problem of space to accommodate the growing number of exhibitors interested to join the event.
Products for display are souvenir items, novelty items, gift items, furniture and furnishings, natural fiber and fashion accessories such as bags, shawls, headgears, processed food and footwear. Tourist destinations in the Visayas have also been included in the OTOP marketing program. (PIA-Cebu/FCR)
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by anyajulia | Nov 19, 2009 | Headlines, National News
The Balance of Payments sustains surplus at $896 Million in October, despite the global economic crisis.
Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas records show that as of June 2009 BOP surplus reaches $2.2-billion attributed mainly to the strong remittance from the Overseas Filipino Workers.
As a result, cumulative remittances for the nine-month period increased by 4.2 percent to reach US$12.8 billion.
The Balance of Payment or BOP is the method countries use to monitor all international monetary transactions at a specific period of time calculated either quarterly or yearly.
Meanwhile, External Debt situation has also improved. As of June 2009, outstanding external debt is $51.8-billion down by 5.4 percent compared to the level registered on the same period in 2008, BSP data revealed. (PIA/EAD)
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by anyajulia | Nov 19, 2009 | Foreign Exchange, Headlines, Major Events
The Department of Education (DepEd) and the University of Auckland (UoA) in New Zealand sealed an agreement to push for reading proficiency among selected public elementary schools in the country.
The partnership will push for the “Reading Recovery in the Philippines” Project, a research-based early literacy intervention that successfully decreased the incidence of reading and writing difficulties among children across a range of linguistic, ethnic, and cultural-social groups in New Zealand.
In the agreement, the UoA will train Philippines Reading Recovery trainers and tutors, who will be selected by DepEd. As the Department implements the Reading Recovery Project, partners from New Zealand will facilitate the project through advisory and support visits. The project is also comprised of research for moderation and evaluation and wider academic collaboration. (DepEd)
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by anyajulia | Nov 19, 2009 | Foreign Exchange, Headlines, Major Events
The United Nations seeks US$143.7 million to support the Philippine Government in revised appeal for typhoon disasters.
The $144 million will cover the work of UN agencies, the International Organization for Migration and several non-governmental organizations from November until March 2010.
Only $26 million was received following the early October requesting $74 million, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs’ Financial Tracking Service (FTS). (PIA)
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