Philippine membership in IMO has opened social, financial and political possibilities for the country. It is as much as us to keep the stature we now enjoy, which includes that of being considered as a accountable Flag State and the most appropriate dealer of seafarers on ships engaged in international voyages. To degree as much as this calls for a lot paintings and commitment, bearing in mind the forthcoming obligatory IMSAS, in which member states will show the status of their compliance, monitoring, and reporting (CMR) to the IMO conventions or protocols to which they may be events.

The question raised via Lawyer #1 on why we need to ratify IMO conventions and endure the burden of implementing international standards on Philippine-flagged ships has to be answered, more to persuade ourselves there is no other choice for Maritime Philippines.

And I echo the reminder of Lawyer #2: we want to start the education for the IMSAS. Let’s cast off the Pinoy’s “mañana” habit please!

Yes, our price tag to the worldwide shipboard exertions market is defined by using our ability to have a look at the standards set by means of the International Convention on the Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping for Seafarers (STCW). But I additionally needed to remind Lawyer #2 that the purpose for the issues we encountered was now not due to the non-ratification of the conference; rather, it’s far how we applied the conference, which our government officials considered as extra of a labor marketing device instead of a worldwide measure for making sure maritime safety.

“Precisely!” changed into his excited response. Ratifying or acceding to maritime treaties is an indication of the u . S . A .’s dedication to making sure secure transport and defensive the marine environment. Non-ratification of maritime conventions limits the opportunities of a country’s fleet as they’re presumed non-compliant with worldwide standards, and in turn their ships are deemed substandard. Questions of seaworthiness and adopting measures to guard the environment will really effect on the marketability of their freight services.

Therefore, opposite to the position of Lawyer #1, who demands that we need to now not ratify global maritime agreements, it’s far imperative that the Philippines try to ratify the rest of the IMO conventions and other maritime conventions for the motives referred to above.

It is reckless to even recall dissociating the us of a from the rest of the global maritime community through rejecting participation in multilateral agreements consisting of the ones followed by means of IMO. Measures to promote maritime protection and the protection of the surroundings need to be gauged towards the benefits that accrue to the united states and the human beings’s welfare.

The Philippines is planning to adopt a procedure within the ratification of IMO conventions that encompass the behavior of a National Interest Assessment (NIA). This shift from the erstwhile step of soliciting separate letters of concurrence from pertinent organizations to that of conserving inter-agency discussions and dialogues gives a higher threat of getting the diverse positions of stakeholders, from which the choice of whether or not or now not the Philippines will ratify a convention will be drawn. This technique calls for sturdy collaboration the various stakeholders. It is also during the guidance of the NIA that various hobbies and positions may be explored and in the end aligned.

Raymund B. Habaradas is an accomplice professor on the Management and Organization Department of the Ramon V. Del Rosario College of Business of De La Salle University, wherein he teachesManagement of Organizationsand Management Research. He does research on SME improvement, company social initiatives and social establishments. He welcomes comments at rbhabaradas@yahoo.Com. The views expressed above are the writer’s and do no longer always reflect the official position of DLSU, its school, and its administrators.Last of two parts

In remaining week’s article, I cited about how a lawyer friend of mine who I shall name Lawyer #1, wondered the Philippines’ signing up worldwide maritime conventions, which to him imposes unnecessary burdens on the usa’s transport quarter.

Another lawyer buddy, who I shall cope with in this text as Lawyer #2, known as me last week to remind me of the required IMO member states audit scheme (IMSAS), and that the Philippines is slated for the audit in 2021. That’s nonetheless a good five years away, I advised Lawyer #2.

He was adamant in his retort. Past data confirmed how the Philippines were remiss in meeting cut-off dates on the subject of compliance with global standards, in one example, nearly losing the international transport network’s reputation of our ability to offer equipped Filipino seafarers.

Some metaphors had been expected, consisting of “ants”, “sheep”, and “pain-in-the-ass” for co-workers; “eagle”, “king” and “witch” for their bosses; and “chopseuy”, “tornado” and “curler coaster” for his or her work. Some used references to pop culture, along with “penguins of Madagascar” for co-workers; “Starbucks planner” and “Iron Man” for his or her bosses; and “wrecking ball” and “Zombie apocalypse” for his or her work. In maximum instances, their solutions are pretty revealing. One used the “butterfly” metaphor due to the fact she idea her work permits her to gain her full capacity; another used “dumbbells” because he felt that his paintings made him strong, and equipped to face tougher demanding situations. And could you want to work for a company this is like a “playground” or one this is like a “prison”?

Notice that during one class consultation, I applied innovative forms (e.G. Stories, poems, drawings) to extend the horizons of my students and to inspire them to assume out-of-the box. While accounting, because the conventional language of business, is precious in shooting company overall performance; figures of speech, such as metaphors, serve an equally valuable, and powerful, function in drawing out fresh perspectives in understanding complicated enterprise problems, apart from generating energy and exuberance amongst organizational participants. Through these metaphors, I am hopeful that my MBA students can have a better appreciation of place of job dynamics, and will see their capacity role as change dealers of their respective corporations.

After using the elephant and the six blind guys as an analogy for how personnel view organizational issues, I proceeded with discussing ‘metaphor’, a commonplace shape of analogy that is applied in numerous factors of our lives, including tune, literature, and advertising and marketing. To illustrate, I read George Peele’s “What issue is love?” even as flashing the poem onscreen, and requested my students to perceive the metaphors Peele used as a automobile to explain the abstract concept known as ‘love’. This generated lively participation and light-hearted laughter in elegance, placing the temper for our subsequent exercising.

Handing out scratch papers to my college students, I requested them to fold their very own papers to be able to create quadrants. For each of the quadrants, I asked them to finish a sentence through drawing an item a good way to serve as metaphor for the positive aspects in their respective businesses. In the primary quadrant, they have to entire the sentence “My agency is…”; within the 2nd quadrant: “My boss is…”; in the 0.33 quadrant: “My co-employees are…”; and inside the fourth quadrant: “My work is…”. I then requested them to shape corporations of 4 or 5 with a purpose to percentage their metaphors with every otherand generate patterns and insights from their discussions.

Money despatched domestic through remote places Filipino workers (OFWs) hit to 2-month low in February no matter increasing from a year in advance, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) stated on Monday.

Personal remittances, which sum up the net repayment of OFWs, private transfers whether in coins or in kind and additionally capital transfers between households, totaled $2.528 billion for the month.

The end result become five.Four percent better in comparison to the 12 months in advance’s $2.397 billion however become down four.7 percent from the $2.655 billion recorded in January this yr.

“Land-based totally workers with paintings contracts of three hundred and sixty five days or more recorded a 6.Five percentage increase to $four.0 billion while those from sea-primarily based and land-primarily based employees with paintings contracts of less than three hundred and sixty five days rose by way of nine.7 percentage to $1.Zero billion,” the significant bank stated in a announcement.

Cash remittances, which only be counted cash sent home via banks, accelerated with the aid of 4.Five percent to $2.267 billion in February from $2.169 billion a year earlier.

While the month’s figures had been lower than expected, Security Bank Corp. Economist and Assistant Vice-President Angelo Taningco stated remittances since the begin of the yr remained “quite exact”.

“The OFW cash remittance increase of 4.5 percent yr-on-year in February became below marketplace expectancies because the marketplace changed into watching for a double-digit increase tempo,” he stated.

“However, for the primary months of the yr, OFW coins remittances are nevertheless distinctly big as its cumulative growth of 7.1 percentage is better than final 12 months’s 4.3 percentage increase and our complete-12 months forecast of 5 percent,” he brought https://signal-means-profits.com/authors/work-on-forex.html reviews.

Taningco additionally said “the quite proper OFW remittance overall performance spanning the January-February period might also were triggered by using rising home inflation and inflation expectations as well as peso depreciation.”

The principal participants to the growth in coins remittances for the month have been the USA, United Arab Emirates, Germany and Malaysia, the Bangko Sentral stated.

“Remittances from the USA and UAE each contributed 1.2 percent points to the four.5 percent ordinary growth. Meanwhile, coins remittances from Germany and Malaysia every shared 1.Zero percent factor to overall boom in coins remittances,” it brought.

Year to this point, OFW remittances had been up 8.1 percent at $5.182 billion.

For the first months of 2017, cash remittances reached $4.647 billion, a 7.1-percentage increase.

“This changed into supported by way of the coins remittances both from land-based ($3.7 billion) and sea-based totally ($1.0 billion) people which elevated by using 6.4 percent and 9.Eight percent, respectively,” the BSP stated.

For the two-month length, the majority of cash remittances came from the US, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Japan, United Kingdom, Qatar, Germany, Hong Kong and Canada, with combined accounted for almost eighty percent of total.

Adecline in import prices of crude and petroleum merchandise allowed the united states of america to have a decrease oil import invoice in 2016, the Department of Energy (DoE) stated in a record on Monday.

DoE facts confirmed the usa’s import bill was down 13.5 percentage at $7.451.Nine billion remaining year from $eight.612.0 billion in 2015.

The import bill consists of 55.4 percentage completed products and 44.6 percent crude oil.

Crude oil imports amounted to $3.321.0 billion, down 17.9 percent from $four.043.1 billion on decrease value, insurance and freight (CIF) in step with barrel. Last yr’s CIF become $42.159 per bbl from $fifty one.795 in 2015.

On the other hand, the u . S .’s receipts from petroleum exports fell by way of 23.2 percentage to $675.0 million from $878.7 million, specifically on decrease volume of shipments and FOB in step with barrel.

As a end result, the u . S .’s internet oil import invoice amounted to $6.776.Eight billion, down 12.Four percentage from $7.733.Three billion.

The overall crude imports reached 78.772 million barrels, up zero.Nine percentage from seventy eight.060 million barrels.

Eighty-seven percent of the full crude imports or sixty eight.537 million barrels turned into sourced from the Middle East, of which 36.1 percent or 28.438 million barrels got here from Saudi Arabia, the Philippines’ top supplier of crude.

Kuwait accounted for 33.6 percentage percentage and the UAE for thirteen.3 percent.

While, 6.7 percentage or 5.256 million barrels became imported from Russia, 6.3 percentage or four.980 million barrels turned into sourced from the Asean and 135,000 barrels from domestic output.

Imported petroleum products totaled 86.108 million barrels in 2016, up 12.Nine percent from 76.276 million barrels in 2015.

THE Board of Investments (BoI) forecast a double-digit increase in overall nearby and foreign investment flows this yr to reach the P500 billion mark, mentioning the u . S .’s sound macroeconomic basics.

On Monday, Trade Undersecretary and BoI Managing Head Ceferino Rodolfo said the BoI is bullish about investment flows for the full year, seeing increase of thirteen.7 percentage from P441 billion in 2016.

Rodolfo referred to a Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) document on Friday that internet overseas direct funding (FDI) reached $7.Ninety three billion in 2016, a 40.7-percent growth from $five.Sixty four billion in 2015. That surpassed by means of 18.Four percent the $6.7 billion mark in advance projected for the year by the BSP.

The amount of FDI registered with Investment Promotion Agencies (IPAs) accounted for 22.Five percent, or $1.78 billion (P89.Three billion), of the total FDI in 2016, the BoI stated.

“The overseas funding stage in the 2nd semester of last 12 months turned into almost double that of the primary semester, without a doubt indicating developing overseas buyers’ self belief in the usa’s sound economic policies, and appealing enterprise environment,” Trade Secretary and BoI Chairman Ramon Lopez said.

WASHINGTON, D.C.: The Trump administration will enforce alternate guidelines greater aggressively than any previous authorities in its efforts to lessen the alternate deficit, however does not are seeking a dispute, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross stated Tuesday.

Ross additionally stated he hopes this week to clear up delays in Congress with a purpose to allow the White House to present formal notification of the reason to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement with Canada and Mexico, which could start the ninety-day clock.

The management has not but decided whether to keep NAFTA as a 3-country deal “or to pursue matching bilaterals,” Ross said in a speech to enterprise leaders and diplomats at a Council of the Americas convention. NAFTA is “at first-class obsolete and at worst did no longer accomplish a number of its most essential goals,” Ross said of the exchange % that President Donald Trump calls a disaster for the US.

And “any settlement can be up to date to mirror changes in all the various economies, and to correct unintended oversights” from the authentic deal, he said.

NAFTA benefitted all

Canada Trade Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne defended NAFTA, however, saying it benefitted all the partners and created North American production chains.

“NAFTA has been an wonderful settlement that has benefitted all facets,” amounting to $1 trillion in alternate annually—4 times more than earlier than the agreement become signed—he told the convention.

And it is inside the excellent hobbies of all 3 countries that it stay “as a trilateral agreement,” he stated.

The buying and selling courting with the USA bills for an expected $1.7 billion in goods and services crossing the border every day, and $322 billion became exported from the US into Canada ultimate yr on my own.

And exchange with Mexico has expanded to the factor wherein the usa is now Canada’s 0.33 most essential buying and selling partner, he stated.

But “we need to paintings tougher to make the case for exchange.”

On the management’s broader change approach—regularly defined as an “America First” policy —Ross said “the intention is to increase standard alternate at the same time as lowering our exchange deficit,” which means lowering limitations to US exports.

At the same time the Trump White House will pursue “stricter enforcement than any preceding administration,” he stated.

“There is little factor to change settlement that isn’t commemorated.”

But notwithstanding latest friction with Canada over dairy exports and softwood lumber imports, and with Mexico over sugar imports, “we do now not are searching for a exchange war with every person, least of all with our fellow citizens of the Americas,” Ross stated.

The US is the least protectionist of any primary economic system, especially compared to China and Korea, but Ross complained that any US trade movement is portrayed in the media as protectionist.

AYALA-LED Globe Telecom has signed an settlement in Guam in order to link the Philippines and Indonesia to the US through Guam and Hawaii through a submarine fiber optic cable now being built in Palau. Globe president and CEO Ernest Cu and George Rechucher, chairman of the Palau-based Belau Submarine Cable Corporation (BSCC), signed the settlement at the Hyatt Regency Guam on May four.The settlement will permit the fiber optic cable spur in Palau to interconnect with the Southeast Asia-United States (SEA-US) cable for onward transport to Guam. The 14,000-kilometer cable machine, costing round $250 million, will encompass two fiber pairs with an preliminary capacity of 20 terabits according to 2nd, the use of the contemporary in submarine fiber-optic generation LISTED conglomerate SM Investments Corp. (SMIC) suggested 8 percent growth in net earnings for the primary sector of this year to P7.7 billion from final 12 months’s P7.1 billion, led by way of strong sales in its assets, banking and retail segments.

Consolidated sales rose eight percentage to P84.Five billion inside the first zone from P78.Four billion in the same duration final yr.

“SM is off to a sturdy start in the first sector with correct boom and steady profit margins across our center businesses. We are also thrilled with latest acquisitions like our stake in 2GO Group, which will assist us build our portfolio of investments to seize the excessive growth of the Philippine economic system,” SM President Frederic DyBuncio instructed the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) on Wednesday. SM’s equity investments consist of stakes in sturdy property which include the City of Dreams Manila assets, NET Buildings, CityMalls and others.

It these days announced the purchase of 34.5 percentage in the figure organisation of 2GO Group and sixty one.2 percentage in MyTown. SM keeps to look to invest in companions with leading positions, robust management and capability for excessive increase and attractive yields.

For the primary quarter, assets accounted for forty four percentage of SM’s consolidated net earnings, observed via banks at 35 percentage and retail at 21 percentage.

Its retail arm SM Retail Inc. Which includes each SM Markets and The SM Store and Specialty Retail, suggested 7 percent boom in overall income to P61.4 billion inside the first region, while internet profits rose 3 percentage to P2.3 billion.

At quit-March, SM Retail had a complete of two,194 shops comprising fifty seven The SM Stores, 1,584 forte retail shops, forty eight SM Supermarkets, 44 SM Hypermarkets, one hundred sixty five Savemore, 39 WalterMart and 257 Alfamart shops.

For the primary area, its banking arm BDO Unibank and ChinaBank published net income of P5.8 billion and P1.5 billion, respectively, or an growth of 6 percentage 12 months-on-yr for both banking gadgets.

Meanwhile, property arm SM Prime Holdings (SMPH) pronounced net income boom of thirteen percentage to P6.6 billion.