Cost of plastic waste cleanup to hit $297M By Cai U. Ordinario @caiordinario
T
HE total clean-up of plastic pollution in seven major rivers across Southeast Asia will cost $297 million, according to environment experts. This is according to an Asian Development Blog penned by National University of Singapore Centre for Nature-based Climate Solutions and Tropical Marine Science Institute’s Audrey Tan and Asian Development Bank’s Francesco Ricciardi.
ROTARY CLUB OF MANILA JOURNALISM AWARDS
2006 National Newspaper of the Year 2011 National Newspaper of the Year 2013 Business Newspaper of the Year 2017 Business Newspaper of the Year 2019 Business Newspaper of the Year 2021 Pro Patria Award PHILIPPINE STATISTICS AUTHORITY 2018 Data Champion
Tan and Ricciardi said plastic pollution is costing Southeast Asian countries $23,100 to $270,000 per square kilometer of coral reef. “As government coffers are limited, the private sector has to be brought into the discussions. That requires a pipeline of projects that not only meet environmental targets but are also profit-making. Such projects, however, are few and far between,” the experts said. Citing a 2021 ADB report, Tan and Ricciardi said there is an annual funding gap of $459
billion that needs to be filled before countries can fully access opportunities in sustainable coastal infrastructure, wastewater treat ment, sustainable tourism and food production. One recommendation to plug this gap is through blended finance—the combination of public and private capital. But other innovative financial tools could also help, the authors said. These innovative financial tools include the rise of carbon markets which could inject new funds for ocean conservation through the sale of carbon credits from the
protection of coastal or marine habitats like mangroves. The list includes blue bonds and insurance schemes that are also being developed to improve the resilience of coastal habitats. “Parametric insurance schemes that pay out for reef restoration after a hurricane have been rolled out to protect the Mesoamerican reef, and similar schemes are being developed for Asia and the Pacific,” the experts said. Continued on A4
BusinessMirror
EJAP JOURNALISM AWARDS
BUSINESS NEWS SOURCE OF THE YEAR
(2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021) DEPARTMENT OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
2018 BANTOG MEDIA AWARDS
H1 GROSS BORROWINGS w
n
Monday, August 28, 2023 Vol. 18 No. 315
P25.00 nationwide | 2 sections 20 pages |
SWELLS TO OVER P1.3T
T
By Jasper Emmanuel Y. Arcalas
@jearcalas
SILVER FOR OBIENA IN WORLDS Ernest John “EJ” Obiena clears 6.0 meters for the second time this season to bag silver—an improvement from his bronze last year—in the men’s pole vault action at the World Athletics Championships in Budapest on Sunday. Olympic champion Armand Duplantis of Sweden retained his title with 6.10m. AP
HE Marcos Jr. administration’s gross borrowings in the first half rose by nearly a third on an annual basis to over P1.3 trillion on the back of higher external and domestic borrowings. Latest Bureau of the Treasury (BTr) data showed that the state has borrowed a gross total of P1.326 trillion during the six-month period, about 29.84 percent higher than the P1.02 trillion it recorded in the same period of last year. The nearly 30-percent increase in borrowings was driven by the double-digit growth rate in the national government’s external and domestic borrowings. The national government’s total gross borrowings from January to June is already 60 percent of its full-year programmed borrowing amount of P2.207 trillion this year. Treasury data showed gross external borrowings reached P366.441 billion during the reference period, about 11.26 percent higher than the P329.336 billion recorded amount in the first half of last year. The increase in external borrowings was caused by the P163.607 billion dollar-denominated multitranche global bonds sold by the state in January.
Likewise, the state’s external borrowings through project loans and program loans rose on a yearon-year basis. Treasury data showed that project loans expanded by 23 percent to P57.775 billion, while program loans increased by 6.19 percent to P145.059 billion. Locally, the national government borrowed a total gross amount of P1.056 trillion from the domestic market during the January-to-June period. The amount was 42.52 percent higher than the P741.263 billion it borrowed domestically last year. The increase in domestic borrowings was driven by higher fixed rate treasury bonds (T-bonds) sold by the Treasury during the sixmonth period. Treasury data showed T-bonds sold from January to June reached P686.150 billion, 28.16 percent higher than the P535.382 billion recorded amount in the same period of last year. See “Gross borrowings,” A2
TRAVEL AGENCIES SPEAK UP ON NEW DEPARTURE RULES By Ma. Stella F. Arnaldo
@akosistellaBM Special to the BusinessMirror
G
EXPLAINER »B4
NERVE AGENTS, POISON AND WINDOW FALLS. OVER THE YEARS, KREMLIN FOES HAVE BEEN ATTACKED OR KILLED
OVERNMENT’S new outbound travel rules will probably do little to solve the problem of human trafficking and likely harass legitimate Filipino travelers just off to vacation abroad. “I really don’t agree with this whole thing,” said Aileen Clemente, president of the 50-year-old Rajah Travel Corp., one of the leaders in the outbound travel business. “There is a Data Privacy Act [and] some required documents violate that, even almost unconstitutional to an extent,” she told the BusinessMirror. This also makes it “prone to more harassment,” she added, where some unscrupulous Immigration officers may unnecessarily detain the traveler and demand something in return before allowing him to travel. She likewise wanted to find out “what percentage of those
traveling abroad fall under human trafficking, that warrant these checks? Is it that big at the airports, given [government’s] definition of voluntary and involuntary travelers?” In other countries, she noted, there are no outbound Immigration rules: “They’re just for inbound travelers, because they have an Advance Passenger Information System and their records with other Immigration authorities abroad and/or Interpol, Department of Homeland Security and the like are accessible.”
‘Ironic,’ says Ping
THE newly-announced protocols have already been lambasted by the public, with former Senator Panfilo Lacson even X’ing on August 26: “Simplifying visa applications for foreign tourists visiting the Philippines while complicating the requirements for Filipinos traveling to other countries is the most annoying irony in our nation’s history.” See “Travel,” A2
Die and mold sector now at 75-80% of pre-Covid levels
T
HE Philippine Die and Mold Association (PDMA) expects to regain the local industry’s prepandemic production levels no later than 2025. PDMA President George Ong told reporters recently that the industry is already 75 percent to 80 percent of prepandemic level of production. Ong said demand is still weak, especially in China. The manufacturing export industry has been “down” and this has also affected Philippine-based industries, including the die and mold industry. “Well, very hard to say [when we will recover to prepandemic levels] but I hope that by next year, that’s the projection 2024 or 2025. Maybe mid-year na. So probably if not [by the] end of 2024, maybe mid-year of 2025,” Ong said. Ong said his company as a whole is around 90 percent recovered from the pandemic. He said it is possible that by the end of the year, they may already reach their prepandemic levels. He said the industry has also received help from the government to recover from the pandemic. The
Metal Industry Research and Development Center (MIRDC), he said, has “done a lot to help the MSMEs [micro, small, and medium enterprises] to recover.” “The government as a whole, they offered let’s say loans to MSMEs as long as they qualify; they offer loans during those lean production times so that people won’t be laid off,” Ong said. Still, he added, “I think it should be fine, getting better, you know [how in] pandemic time [that’s quite] rock bottom, so I think everybody is on...recovery [mode]. Some are faster, some are probably a little bit slower,” he added. In a recent speech, Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) Director General Tereso O. Panga said the Die and Mold Industry has been a crucial component of the economy. Based on Peza data, Panga said there were 4,372 die and mold firms operating in ecozones. He said the industry is Peza’s biggest investors, accounting for 65 percent of the exports from the economic zones. See “Die,” A2
PESO EXCHANGE RATES n US 56.7020 n JAPAN 0.3888 n UK 71.4956 n HK 7.2318 n CHINA 7.7898 n SINGAPORE 41.8650 n AUSTRALIA 36.3857 n EU 61.3232 n KOREA 0.0427 n SAUDI ARABIA 15.1149 Source: BSP (August 25, 2023)