Convergys Corp., one of the biggest business process outsourcing firm (BPO) in the Philippines is looking to hire at least 3,600 new employees this year.

The plan of Convergys to hire additional employees was announced by Convergys Philippines country manager and managing and managing director Marife Zamora. She said the expansion is meant to meet the demand of its clients, who mostly belong to the top Fortune 50 list of global firms.

The company has expanded its five of its 12 existing sites in the Philippines, and with the additional new employees, it hopes to bring its total workforce to 25,000 before the year ends.

The sites that are included in the expansion are the: UP TechnoHub in Diliman, Quezon City; San Lazaro in Sta. Cruz, Manila; Nuvali in Laguna; Cebu i3 in AsiaTown Cebu; and Bacolod.

The expansion involved the addition of 2,300 workstations, prompting the need to hire at least 3,600 more people. Of the total, an estimated 350 were for the Bacolod site, 600 for Cebu, and 2,800 for Metro Manila.

Zamora said that the Philippine’s call center agents were among the best, if not the best in Convergy’s global workforce, which fuels client demand for more business to be outsourced here.

“We’re expanding mainly because of the outstanding performance of our employees here and the overall demand for the high-quality service that the Philippine operations are delivering,” she said.

While many of Convergys’ 12 existing facilities were already filled to capacity, she said there were still other sites that had room for expansion. She added however, the company was already looking at several locations nationwide to house possible new site

The country’s largest Filipino-owned coffee company plans to expand operations this year by opening up one or two outlets each month, or a total of 18 stores before the year ends.

Figaro Coffee Co. sets aside a total of P78 million to fund the increase of its 65 coffee shops in the Philippines. Marketing manager of Figaro Coffee Systems Inc., Ace L. Azarraga, noted that each store has an estimated cost of P6.5 million. They have just opened two stores recently, one in DBP Makati and the other in Dasmarinas, Cavite.

“Figaro Coffee Company is now keeping a critical eye on expanding in our home-market, which will focus mostly on business districts around the country as we want more and more people to experience our local barako coffee,” Azarraga said.

The DBP Makati branch is a full store carrying their complete line-up of coffee drinks, breakfast, pasta, pizza, all day breakfast, ala carte, sandwhiches and pastries. The store is located at the ground floor of DBP building, Sen. Gil Puyat Ave., cor. Makati Ave., Makati City., which is perfect for business and casual meetings.

Figaro’s expansion program is in line with its tradition to continue serving the finest native barako coffee in the country by opening more outlets. “As we continue to expand, more and more Filipino coffee farmers are benefited. Figaro Coffee Company only buys local coffee beans,” Azarraga said.

Of the 65 Figaro branches nationwide, most of which are in Luzon, 35 are franchise-owned and 30 are company-owned.

Figaro was established in 1993 and is  a 100-percent Filipino-owned company whose product lines include specialty roasted local coffee varieties and various coffee-related paraphernalia.

New Microsoft product launched last week, and the software giant expects Filipino businesses to significantly benefit from them, in terms of productivity gains and higher returns on their software investments.

The Microsoft latest products – Microsoft Office 2010, Microsoft SharePoint 2010, Microsoft Vision 2010 and Microsoft Project 2010, were launched last week for customers in the Philippines.

“Microsoft Office 2010 and the 2010 set of products offer people the flexibility to work across their PC, phone, and browser. As a result, companies can save, innovate and grow. This is what we mean when we say that Office 2010 and SharePoint 2010 are defining the future of productivity,” Microsoft Asia-Pacific sales and marketing vice president Ken Wye Saw said. He said their products help companies save costs by giving flexibility and choice.

A new remittance system that will allow for a safer, faster and cheaper remittances by OFWs (overseas Filipino workers) will be implemented by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) starting on the third quarter of the year.

This is the new Philippine Payments and Settlements System or Philpass Remit System. Under this new system, the fee will be reduced to P50 per remittance transaction, resulting to savings of P100 to P500, as the current system charges ranges from P150 to P550.

BSP said the Philpass Remit System ensures safer, faster and cheaper means of remittance transaction.

The system involves the use of the BSP-Philpass as the local clearinghouse for the transfer of remittances from a local bank to another bank where the OFW beneficiary maintains an account.

This project was undertaken jointly by the BSP with the Association of Bank Remittance Officers Inc. (ABROI) through a memorandum of agreement signed last December.

The scheduled implementation of the project was supposed in the first quarter of the year, however, only one bank was able to migrate to the new system since the MOA was signed.

The central bank said they will need to wait for the other member banks to resolve their issues on hardware and system connectivity, so they can finally migrate before the new remittance system will be fully operational.

First Gas Power Corp. is planning to borrow $80 million from local banks, and the Lopez-controlled is seeking the approval of Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas to borrow the said amount, which was said to be higher that what was being considered earlier by the company, which was only $50 million.

The company is the one who owns and operates the 1,000-megawatt Santa Rita combined cycle natural gas-fired power plant in Batangas.

The Santa Rita power plant, according to the company’s website, uses natural gas from the Malampaya Gas Field in offshore Northwest Palawan.

The BSP, last week, approved the Philippine National Oil Corp. – Exploration Corp.’s own foreign currency deposit unit (FCDU) loan worth $9 million. The agency said that last year, total FCDU loans decreased by almost nine percent at $4.95 billion compared to what was reported in 2008.

If the basis would be the borrower type, private loans were lower last year at $3.182 billion compared to the $5.334 billion in 2008. Private FCDU loans are mainly availed by public utilities and exporters. Residents accounted for 69 percent total loan portfolio.

More employment opportunities in Taiwan await Filipino jobseekers, the Philippine Star reported today.

In its business page, the local newspaper said that according to local recruiters, there are at least 30,000 jobs awaiting Filipino workers in Taiwan.

Pilipino Manpower Association of Taiwan, Inc. (PILMAT) president Jackson Gan said that factories in Taiwan are still in dire need of Filipinos and other foreign workers.

“Companies in Taiwan continue to hire workers and we have thousands of job orders that are yet to be filled up until this time,” Gan said, adding that  Taiwan has bounced back from last year’s financial crisis and is hiring more workers than in past years.

He said, however, that they are having difficulty recruiting skilled workers to fill up the vacancies because of the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) secretary-general’s warning that “the forging of an economic cooperation agreement between Taiwan and China would adversely affect the employment of OFWs.”

Gan stressed that NEDA’s fear is baseless since Taiwanese employers still prefer Filipinos compared to other workers from other countries.

He said that while Taiwan hires other nationalities like Vietnamese and Indonesians, overseas Filipino workers still have the advantage because Filipinos can speak the English language unlike other nationalities. He also noted that Taiwan hires an average of 40,000 Filipino workers, including factory workers and caregivers, annually.

Gan stressed “NEDA is sounding an alarm without basis that could jeopardize the country’s economic stability. Its warning that thousands of OFWs may lose jobs is far-fetched.”

The auction of the retail treasury bonds of the Philippine government has been completed and according to National Treasurer Roberto Tan, $500 million have been raise from the sale of the retail, multi-currency bond.

Tan was happy to report that they completed the total tender of $5000 million, based on the preliminary information he had received. These RTBs were sold to small investors and institutional buyers as well.

Before conducting the auction, Tan and his group composed of officials from the government and issue underwriters went to different countries and conducted “financial literacy seminars” for overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) and discussed with them the benefits of investing the said retail bonds. Tan said they were received warmly during those seminars by OFWs from the United States, Europe and some parts of Asia.

Manila scrapped Tuesday’s sale of P8.5 billion ($192 million) worth of 5-year bonds following the retail bond issue. Tan said there were no plans to cancel more Treasure debt auctions after the bond offer.

According to the preliminary reports received by Tan, the government was able to raise nearly $350 million from an auction of the foreign currency bonds on April 21. The rest were sold during the public offer which ended on Tuesday.

$200 million worth of 3-year US dollar bonds were sold at a coupon rate of 2.875% at an auction on April 21. The government also sold 5-year US dollar bonds at a coupon rate of 4.125% to raise $98 million.

Meanwhile, Manila also auctioned 5-year and 3-year Euro bonds worth $4 million Euros and 35 million Euros, respectively.

$500 million retail treasury bonds will be auctioned by the government on April 21. These RTB were intended for overseas Filipino workers (OFWs).

National Treasurer Roberto Tan is confident that they would be able to sell the whole $500 million after conducting a series of successful briefing in different parts of the globe.

Tan said that they were very pleased with the warm reception from OFWs from the United States, Europe and some parts of Asia.

Tan led of delegate composed of government officials and issue underwriters. They went to different countries conducting “financial literacy seminars” for OFWs to discuss the benefits of investing in the said OFW bonds.

The bonds, which are also known as the Fixed Rate Multicurrency Retail Treasury Bond, will be offered to investors from April 21 to April 27. First Metro Investment Corp. (FMIC), BPI Capital Corp., Development Bank of the Philippines, PNB Capital & Investment Corp., and BDO Capital & Investment Corp. were tapped as issue managers of the RTBs.

The investment instruments are available in three and five year bonds, comprising of $400 million in dollar denominated bonds and 75 million in euro-denominated bonds.

At least 20 percent of the $500 million bonds are intended for retail investors, and the rest are for institutional investors. Investments ranging from $100 to $100,000 will be considered retail.

To encourage OFWs to invest in the multi-currency bonds, the government is offering them exemption from the 20 percent tax usually slapped on said instruments. This is in line with the governments thrust to provide overseas Filipinos an investment facility for their earnings.

After its continued rally last week, where it breaks into the P44 mark, economists say that peso is seen to weaken anew, adding that it would be seen retreating back to P46-to-$1 at the height of the local and national elections.

Having a pause from its seven-day rally against the dollar last Thursday, the local currency ended 15 centavos weaker at P44.95 per $1 from Wednesday’s P44.80 per $1 finish.

However, traders noted this weakening as a “correction of the peso” after enjoying seven straight days of gains. Marcelo E. Ayes, senior vice-president of the Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. said, “The correction was expected. Technically, the peso was due for a correction”

He even added that the decline was a little tame, as he was expecting the peso to hit P45.10 to P45.20.

Meanwhile Tim Condon of the Netherlands-based investment bank ING said the local currency is likely to retrace the 46 level after appreciating on the back of  of benign inflation and within ceiling budget deficit figures.

“We expect the US dollar to Philippine peso to retrace above P46 to $1 as the political risk intensifies around the May general election,” he stressed.

The San Miguel Corp. (SMC) continues to diversify as it looks for investments in other industries, such as infrastructures and renewable energy, among others.

The latest in its investment is the Metro Rail Transit Phase 7 (MRT-7), where SMC has acquired a majority stake. SMC signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the controlling owner of MRT-7.

SMC president Ramon Ang and businessmand Salvador “Buddy” Zamora III entered into an agreement which allows SMC to buy the majority interest of Zamora in Universal LRT Corp. (ULC).

Zamora owns 63 percent of ULC, which int turn owns the MRT-7 project. He acquired majority control of the ULC consortium in 2008 from its orignial proponent, Israeli businessman Eli Levin.

The MRT 7 is a 22-kilometer light rail transit route that extends from the MRT Line 3’s North Edsa terminal to San Jose del Monte in Bulacan.

Morgan Stanley has been tapped by the ULC as its financial advisor to raise equity and debt needed to finance the construction of the $1.3-billion project.

The MRT 7, aside from the light rail transit system, also include an intermodal transport terminal. It is transportation hub for buses and other form of public conveyances in San Jose del Monte. It also include a 22-km, six-lane feeder highway from the northern end of the line in Bocaue, Bulacan which will link the intermodal terminal to the North Luzon Expressway.

Initially, the rail component of MRT 7 will operate 108 rail cars in a three-car train configuration. The initial capacity was projected at 448,000 passenger a day, but will eventually be expanded to accommodate as many as 850,000 passengers daily.

It will have 14 stations located at: North Edsa, Quezon Memorial Circle, University Ave., Tandang Sora, Don Antonio, Batasan, Manggahan, Doña Carmen, Regalado, Mindanao Ave., Quirino, Sacred Heart, Tala and Araneta San Jose Del Monte.

Meanwhile, the intermodal terminal will be able to accommodate 60 buses and will also feature passenger facilities and amenities.

Aside from the MRT-7, SMC is also exploring the possibility of the light rail transit project in Cebu, as well as other projects in Cagayan de Oro, Davao and Iloilo for its next investments.

Earlier, it was reported that the diversifying conglomerate is keen on building a bullet train the will run the Laoag-Manila-Bicol route. According to Ang, the company commissioned a group, which includes international companies with experience in bullet trains, to conduct a study on the project.