Prakriti Sofat, an economist from leading global investment house Barclays Capital said the peso could reach 44 to the dollar level by the end of the year because of recovery in exports and the steady inflows of remittances.

In the report from Philippine Star, Sofat said the outlook for Philippine exports remains positive given the strong turnaround in the global electronics cycle.

Lead indicators such as the US manufacturing survey and semi-conductor book-to-bill ratio, according to Sofat, remain supporting to growth. She also noted that movements in the region remain favorable, with both Korea and Taiwan seeing strong exports prints in February and China remaining in expansionary territory.

“Our 12-month forecast for the dollar to the pesos is P44,” Sofat said. The Bangko Sentra ng Pilipinas, for its part, expects the pesos to hit a range of 46-49 against the dollar this year.

The 42.5 percent rise in the Philippine exports in January was a 15-year high, it was even higher than Barclays Capital’s forecast of 36-percent bounce. The total receipts reached $3.6  billion.

“On a seasonally-adjusted basis, exports rose by 4.8 percent month-on-month following on from a 0.4-percent decline in December and a 6.2-percent increase in November,” Sofat explained.

She also added, “we expect the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) to keep the overnight borrowing rate unchanged at four percent at the upcoming meeting given relatively contained inflation and cautious outlook on growth.”

Because of the continuous growth of the business process outsourcing (BPO) industry in the Philippines, BPO firm StarTek Inc. plans to hire 1,000 people as it aims to fill up seats at its facility in Ortigas area which has a 2,100-seat capacity.

Rod Spires, who was appointed to lead the operations at the new site of StarTek located at the Eton Cyberpod Corinthian business center, said it will be operational by the third quarter. It is just across the Robinsons Galleria mall.

The company’s first site in Makati City is expected to fill up it’s 1,100-seat facility soon.

The new facility, according to Spires, will seat over 2,100 agents, and so they currently on recruiting for over 1,000 new employee positions to meet their existing demand.

StarTek president and chief executive Larry Jones said the company’s investment in its second site would cost around $8 million.

The BPO firm currently maintains around 9,000 seats in over 20 sites in the United States, Costa Rica, Canada and the Philippines. It provides high-value voice and non-voice services to its clients.

Looking for new skills that you can turn into a business? Here’s an interesting seminar on meat and fish processing.

A one-day seminar on meat and fish processing will be conducted by the Golden Treasure Skills Development Program. It will be held at the PTTC, Department of Trade and Industry Bldg. (DTI) Roxas Blvd., cor. Sen Gil Puyat Ave on March 13, 2010 from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Among the topics to be discussed during the seminar are: sourcing of materials and costing.

Participants will be thought how to make tocino, skinless longganisa, chinese sausage, embutido, chicen nuggets, chicken and pork ham, pork kikiam, fish ball, fish fillet, spanish and tomato sardine, fish burger, squid ball, and corned beef.

As a bonus to the participants, topics on how to make vegetable preserved (i.e. achara from paypaya, carrot, sayote, ampalaya, etc.)

Certificate of training will handed out to participant right after the seminar. Lunch and snack will also be served, handouts and all the raw materials for hands-on will be provided.

All inquiries regarding this seminar should all be addressed to telephone numbers (02) 913-6541; 436-7826; 421-1577 and 433-7601. You can also check their website at www.GoldenTreasureSkills.com

Iloilo City is one of the city identified as the Next Wave Cities (NWC) for business process outsourcing (BPO) firms by the Business Processing Association of the Philippines (BPAP) because of its attractive power, telecommunications, commercial, sea and airport infrastructure and it offers one of the lowest rental, power and average base pay rates in the country.

Taking the cue from the BPAP, Ayala Land, Inc. signed a 35-year lease agreement with the Pison Group. This agreement would see Ayala to develop a two-hectare property located at Riverside Boardwalk in Smallville, Barangay San Rafael, Mandurriao, Iloilo City.

The investment of Ayala in Iloilo City would see the rise of three BPO facilities with a total of 19,000 square meters of gross leasable area (GLA).

The initial phase of the construction, which is scheduled to start by the second quarter of this year, involves the construction of the first building with approximately 9,500 square meters of GLA. The target date of completion is the first quarter of 2011.

Ayala Land Businesscapes, the office real estate solutions arm of the Ayala Land, will develop this BPO facility which would the biggest in Iloilo to date. The project is also expected to generate about 8,000 jobs in the city.

The investment is part of the Ayala group’s goal of expanding into, developing and redeveloping in strategic areas within attractive growth centers across the country.

Ayala Land Businesscapes is at the forefront of providing a complete line of office real estate solutions in the most strategic sites that are developed according to world-class standards and complemented by preferred amenities and the most reliable facilities management services.

Now, here’s a good suggestion. Presidential aspirant Gilberto “Gibo” Teodoro Jr. wanted bets bank accounts bared.

The Lakas-Kampi-CMD standard-bearer said that the bank secrecy law should be lifted or at least be reviewed to help unmask the financial activities of politicians who are suspected to have links to the illegal drug trade.

Gibo was reacting to the report of the US State Department that some candidates in the coming national elections are receiving funding from drug syndicates. “That situation is very dangerous as drug syndicates can easily help a candidate win through their money,” he said.

The bank secrecy laws were meant to protect the privacy of good individuals, Gibo said. Unfortunately, the same law also provided a blanket for drug lords and corrupt government officials.

The bank secrecy law, Republic Act 1405, was passed in 1955 and sought to encourage people to deposit their money in a bank and discourage hoarding, which was a common practice during the Japanese occupation.

The law states that all deposits with banks and banking institutions are considered to be “absolutely confidential” and “may not be inquired or looked into by any person, subject to some exceptions.”

Through the years, exceptions and amendments were added to the bank secrecy law.

At the closing of the week’s trade this Friday, Peso inches up further as it closed at 46.05 against the US dollar, which is stronger than Thursday closing which is 46.09.

The peso continued to appreciate as favorable investor sentiment boosted appetite for currencies of emerging Asian economies. Volume of Friday’s trade went up to $73.1 million from only $611.44 million on Thursday.

This upward trend may continue next week, according to traders, as optimism for Asian developing countries is sustained by encouraging macroeconomic indicators. They said, emerging markets from Asia are seen to lead growth of the global economy this year. It is even predicted by some analysts that the peso may breach into the 45-to-a-dollar territory in the coming week.

Factors that brought about this appreciation include the sustained growth in remittances and modest rise in foreign investments like the direct placements in the business process outsourcing industry (BPO).

But not all sectors are happy with the upward trend of the value of peso. Exporters are complaining that the appreciation of peso is hurting the competitiveness of Philippine-made products.

Because of this, the export sector is asking the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) to deliberately weaken the peso, particularly by buying more dollars from the foreign exchange market.

For its part, the BSP said it is intervening in the foreign exchange from time to time, but it is only to avoid very sharp and sudden rise of the local currency.

Planning of getting a franchise for a business? Here’s an opportunity for you to learn the ropes on how to get a franchise here in the Philippines.

There is a scheduled franchise seminar to be held tomorrow, March 7, 2010 at the Mang Inasal, Makati Ave. corner Jupiter Street in Makati. The seminar will start at 2 p.m. until 6 p.m.

The Franchise Institute of the Philippines (FIP) will be the one conducting the seminar and it will be held under the auspices of GMB Franchise Developers, Inc. The theme of the seminar will be “Approach Franchising With Confidence.”

Armando “Butz” Bartolome will be the resource speaker in the said seminar. He is a renowned franchise guru who has nearly 30 years of experience assisting entrepreneurs in developing effective franchise programs.

Bartolome has spoken in various seminars where he has given “tips and traps in franchise development” to warn aspiring entrepreneurs. He is a strong advocate of responsible franchising.

Supporting him in this month’s seminar are the Association of Filipino Franchisers Inc. (AFFI) and the multi-awarded entrepreneur Edgar “Injap” Sia, II, chairman and CEO of Mang Inasal.

Interested parties may call 359-6801 and 532-8386 for information and reservation. You may also email franchisemarketing@gmail.com.

NOTE:
Please direct all your concerns and inquiries to the numbers and contact email stated above. Thank you.

The Home Development Mutual Fund (HDMF), commonly known as the Pag-IBIG, will be having a P12-billion bond offering starting next month.

In an investors’ meeting held recently were the bonds were launched, HDMF chief executive officer Jaime Fabiaña said the proceeds of the bonds would be used to refinance in maturing P7 billion loan in May, and the rest would be used to add up to their funds.

“The bonds are tax free and enjoy the full and unconditional guarantee of the government through the Home Guaranty Corp.,” said Fabiaña who noted that the bonds have enough sweeteners to attract investors.

Maturing in five years and one day time, the bonds can also serve as alternative compliance by banks with the Agri-Agra Law and qualify as reserve assets of insurance companies and can count as compliance with the Urban Housing Development Act.

Target investors of the bonds are banks, insurance firms and property developers. Development Bank of the Philippines and First Metro Investment Corp., the investment-banking arm of the Metrobank Group has been tapped as arrangers of the investment instrument.

Land Bank of the Philippines joins the two as joint lead underwriters while the Bureau of Treasury will serve as facility agent and registrar.

The Land Bank of the Philppines joins the DBP and the FMIC as joint lead underwriters while the Bureau of the Treasury serves as facility agent and registrar.

In 2009, Pag-IBIG was able to release P46 billion in end-user financing to its more than 74,000 members nationwide.

The Asian Development Bank is making funds available to Philippine traders via its $1-billion regional facility. To help traders get access to this fund, the ADB signed a trade finance agreement with five banks – Development Bank of the Philippines, Metropolitan Bank and Trust Co., Philippine National Bank, Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. and Allied Banking Corp.

The country’s first trade finance agreements was created to provide support to Philippine companies engaged in international trade. The title of the credit facility is ADB’s Trade Finance Facilitation Program (TFFP).

ADB’s Private Sector Operations Department Director General Philip Erquiaga believes that by providing small and medium sized companies, especially those in the manufacturing sector, they will be able to expand and employ more workers, thereby help in the alleviation of poverty in the country.

The program also helps link banks and companies in developing economies with their counterparts in other developing and developed economies. This would build relationships and spur job-creating business opportunites and knowledge sharing that will help banks and their clients on longer term.

The country continues to become an attractive place to invest, especially in the business process outsourcing (BPO) sector, because of the availability of qualified workforce and quality service areas.

The ingredients that motivate Infosys BPO Ltd. to draw up plans to expand its presence in the country. The Philippine expansion of Infosys includes opening up three more new BPO sites here.

Visiting Infosys chief operating officer Ritesh Idnani said the company is very bullish about the Philippines and that they will continue to invest in the next few years.

Philippines operations currently accounts for five to six percent of the company’s entire revenues, but Idnani said they expect it to grow to eight to 10 percent in 18 to 24 months. They also expect a 100 percent growth in revenues by the end of its fiscal year ending March 201o.

The plan expansion would create additional job opportunities for more Filipinos as disclosed by Infosys delivery center head for the Philippines Madhusudan Menon. He said they would be creating an additional 2,000 local jobs this year.

They are looking at two properties in Quezon City and one in Clark, Pampanga for their next site in the country. At present, Infosys’ 1,100-seat center is located at Fort Bonifcio, Taguig and currently employs around 650 personnel.