Kenney: Cebu to gain from US stimulus bill

CEBU, Philippines - The effort of the United States' government to set in place an economic stimulus bill is seen to benefit Cebu in terms of more investments, especially in Information, Communication Technology (ICT), said US Ambassador to the Philippines Kristie Kenney in her brief visit to Cebu yesterday.

"Cebu is host to a lot of American companies," she said adding that hosting these big American companies will highlight Filipinos' brilliant skills, especially in research and development (R&D), hardware and software development, among others.

Kenney downplayed impressions that the US-injected global crisis will bring about more closures and decline of investments from the United States, reiterating her firm belief the economy is on its way to recovery.

 "I'm not an economist, I don't know when [exactly] we are going to recover," the lady Ambassador said emphasizing that she is strongly positive that US in particular, is on the recovery track.

Likewise, she made pronouncements that Filipinos who have lost jobs in the United States, will be able to benefit from Obama's new economic stimulus bill, which is meant to get the economy moving, thereby providing jobs not only for Americans, but also for Filipino-American, or other nationalities living in the United States.

 Kenney visited several US companies here yesterday, such as Lexmark, Timex, Convergys, PeopleSupport, East Asia Utilities, NCR Corporation, among others.

The Ambassador specifically mentioned the success of NCR's operations in Cebu at the Asia Town IT Park, which is due to the good supply of software and hardware engineers here. The company tripled its workforce to 500 young engineers in the last five years.

 NCR is a global technology company that develops self-service solutions and comprehensive support services that address the need of retail, financial, travel, healthcare, hospitality, entertainment, gaming and public sector organizations.

Part of the Ambassador's activities yesterday was to grace the launching of the Clean Air Youth Alliance (CAYA-Cebu) composed of environmental enthusiasts from different high schools in Cebu.

In her speech, Kenney said that the Philippines could always count on the United States for help. CAYA-Cebu on the other hand is supported by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

She mentioned the recent US$73 million assistance given by the US government to the Philippines for the "clean-air" campaign, encouraging the development of solar-power to provide electrification in the rural areas that are off-grid, and other environment-related projects.