PHL telco sector rises to challenge of helping millions stay alive, as remote work, studying, government and business transactions, and telemedicine become matter of life and death.

‘Because of our strong fiscal position, we were able to procure a total of 195 million vaccine doses from both the government and private sector, provide emergency cash transfers for those affected by the quarantines, and strengthen our overall response to address the pandemic.’ — Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Karl Kendrick T. Chua

Govt taps various financing tools to keep economy afloat

WHILE local financial consumers have historically been relatively aloof from the traditional banking system, it looks like financial technology (fintech) is winning them over on convenience and increased reliance on digital means due to the pandemic. Earlier this year, Moody’s Investors Service released an in-depth analysis on the Philippine banking system, claiming that fintech companies…

DESPITE uncertainties that caused dwindling revenues, aviation industry stakeholders are still optimistic, albeit very cautious at the same time. They are in fact, ready to flap their wings and paint the skies red, blue and yellow, should demand return at any given point. After all, they have all been waiting patiently to fly more people from one airport to another. “We remain hopeful for…

As the tourism industry tries to reboot, the DOT is constantly reminding our foreign friends that “More Fun Awaits” them in the Philippines. The agency’s new brand campaign has an ad airing on CNN International, the BBC, CNBC, National Geographic, and the History Channel. (Last year, it started with the “Wake up in the Philippines” campaign.)

THINK tanks, government officials and business groups have stressed the need to bring in more foreign direct investments (FDI), especially at a time when a country is battling an enemy strong enough to send it to an economic recession. FDIs are expected to generate more employment and revenues—both of which are on the top of the must-have list of the country. This is what the move to amend…

OFW who didn’t return abroad finds way to create jobs for others ‘before my savings dry up,’ thus showing that, for half a million migrant workers displaced by Covid, there’s light at the end of the tunnel.

IT’S the beginning of October, just the start of what the retail world simply calls “peak.” But the industry is already in various forms of panic that usually don’t take hold until the weeks before Christmas. Early in the year, the hope was that the bottlenecks that gummed up the global supply chain in 2020 would be mostly cleared by now. They’ve actually only gotten worse—much worse—and…

LOOK northwest. That’s where the future of the world’s and the country’s logistics and supply chain lies post-pandemic. That is what a former Dean of the University of the Philippines School of Labor and Industrial Relations (Solair) told the BusinessMirror. Rene E. Ofreneo pointed out that Hong Kong-based logistics giant Li & Fung Ltd. could be the poster boy of the “new normal” of…

IN January 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the public health emergency of international concern for the Covid-19 virus outbreak. Two months later the world was already facing a pandemic, Dr. Vergel P. Binay, medical director of Ospital ng Makati, recalled. “Our lives changed in ways that we could not have imagined! In a blink of an eye, people in all sectors suddenly…

WHILE hospitals are equipped to deal with emergency situations that involve multiple casualties, they were not prepared to deal with an invisible enemy known as the Covid-19 virus. Imagine the concerns and the fears going through the heads of hospital administrators. Will frontliners get infected? What rooms can accommodate Covid-19 patients? Do we have enough medicines to treat them? Do…