DTI trade mission to beef up BPO industry

The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) embarks on a trade mission in the United States to promote the country’s business process outsourcing (BPO) industry. Several exclusively selected companies, among them Exterieur Resources Worldwide Inc., will be participating in the trade mission which will be held from Sept. 22 to Oct. 6 and will cover New York City, Fort Lauderdale, Miami, Chicago and Denver. Organized by the Center for International Trade Expositions and Missions in cooperation with the Board of Investments, the trade mission is expected to strengthen the country’s rapidly emerging reputation as a major Asia-Pacific business center, lauded by many US, Canadian and European companies as a "best shore" location that eclipses even India in a number of BPO categories. Exterieur Resources Worldwide Inc., a British Columbia corporation with extensive ownership and business ties to the Philippines including its main operational facilities in Makati, is a BPO firm specializing in providing offshore finance and accounting, legal and human resources services and industry specific "best practices" that maximize labor cost savings and generate powerful economies of scale through standardized business processes tied to leading-edge technology. DTI Secretary Peter Favila, along with a number of prominent business executives, will be gracing the New York segment of the trade mission.

epEd to get shot in the arm

D Let’s hope the proposed P134-billion allocation in the 2007 national budget could address the numerous problems faced by the beleaguered education department. According to House deputy majority leader Eduardo Gullas, part of the proposed allocation will be used to build 6,000 new classrooms, purchase 42 million textbooks and other reading materials, hiring of 10,000 new personnel, among others. While the allocation for 2007 is higher by 10 percent compared to the P121 billion last year, skeptics doubt whether this would translate into better performance for students. While some P940 million is slated to retool 50,000 teachers in English, Math and Science, this may not be enough to significantly address the deteriorating quality of education that has been plaguing the country for so long. Records show that in the 2004 High School Readiness Test administered by the DepEd, only six out of 1,000 grade six students are ready to enter high school, with more than 99 percent of the examinees failing to get 75 percent or higher in the 90-item competency test covering English, Math and Science. Only two out of 100 high school graduates are fit to enter college – not surprising if one were to consider the fact that only 19 percent of more than 53,000 public high school teachers have the confidence and competence to teach English. According to the Boston College, Quadrennial Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) in December 2004, the Philippines ranks 41st in Science and 42nd in Mathematics among 45 countries. We’re definitely lagging behind Singapore, South Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Japan which topped the worldwide survey.

Solon pushes for approval of SMS tax bill

Congressman Mark Cojuangco of the 5th district of Pangasinan is pushing for the approval of House Bill 4863 (filed in October last year) that would impose a 50-centavo specific tax on SMS (short message service) texting to create a special infrastructure fund. In proposing the bill, Cojuangco said a tax on SMS would be a ready and broad based source of revenue which would be used to alleviate the country’s fiscal situation, where "each text sender would share in the burden of nation building." Perhaps part of the bill’s rationale stems from the fact that a lot of Filipinos are deemed to use text messaging mainly for entertainment or amusement, and taxing texters would compel them to be more disciplined in the use of text messaging. While some countries are known as the steel capital, or aluminum or other "capitals," the Philippines has been dubbed as "the text capital of the world" – a distinction that Cojuangco thinks is not really something to be proud about. "With the advent of new technology, text messaging SMS has become available to everybody. There has been a paradigm shift in our way of life brought about by this technology at such a low price. It is my belief that this tax bill is progressive. It taxes the rich although it also taxes the poor. But if you are poor and own a cell phone, are you not then, by definition, from the richer poor?" the congressman pointed out.

Spy tidbiz: Potential anti-obesity protein in rats

Italian researchers reported that experiments involving a protein identified as TLQP-21 injected into the brains of mice kept them slender. The study, published in the recent issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, disclosed that when the peptide TLQP-21 (first identified in the brains of rats) is chronically injected into cerebral ventricles, it increased the mice’s energy expenditure and rectal temperature, changes which affected metabolism and calorie burning. While researchers believe the protein has the potential of becoming an anti-obesity agent for use in humans, they admitted it’s too early to tell yet, especially considering that the method used is through brain injections – perhaps perfectly acceptable for rats and mice. But for humans? We’ll take the pill anytime. Besides, it’s never been shown that there’s such a thing as "eat all you want and never get fat" phenomenon.

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