Megaworld pours P2.5 B to double office space in Iloilo Business Park

By Iris Gonzales (The Philippine Star) | Updated February 18, 2017 - 12:00am

In a briefing yesterday, Megaworld SVP Jericho Go said the company would add 55,000 square meters to its office space inventory in the Iloilo Business Park. File photo

ILOILO CITY, Philippines – Megaworld Corp. is pouring in P2.5 billion to double its office space in its township here by 2020.

In a briefing yesterday, Megaworld SVP Jericho Go said the company would add 55,000 square meters to its office space inventory in the Iloilo Business Park.

The company currently has an inventory of 45,000 sqm in its five office towers, One Global, Two Global, One Techno Place, Three Techno Place and Richmonde Tower, which have all been leased out.

Go said the company would add two more towers - the Festive Walk and Two Techno Place.

Two Techno Place is a five-level office building with an estimated leasable area of around 10,000 square meters. The tower is seen to generate around 3,000 jobs once completed.

Festive Walk Office Tower, on the other hand, is a four-level office building with around 12,000 square meters of leasable space. It will be able to generate around 4,000 jobs upon completion.

“During the last three years, we have experienced a spike in the demand for office spaces in Iloilo Business Park.  Thus, we expedited the construction of our first four towers and we have decided to build more to meet the demand,” Go said.

Megaworld’s Iloilo Business Park is host to around 15,000 office workers from the five BPO companies.

The 72-hectare township, which Megaworld started to develop in 2011, has been positioned to be Iloilo City’s central business district.

Among its locators include StarTek, Transcom, Reed Elsevier, WNS and IQor, among others.

Go said prospects for the country’s BPO industry remain positive despite concerns on US President Donald Trump’s protectionist policies.

“We continue to see bright prospects for Iloilo’s BPO industry. Several companies, most of them are first-timers in Iloilo, want to come in and expand here,” Go said.

Last year, Megaworld mapped out the so-called ‘Visayas BPO Triangle” that will  focus on expanding office developments in its three townships in the Visayas, particularly The Mactan Newtown in Cebu, The Upper East in Bacolod and Iloilo Business Park in Mandurriao, Iloilo.  

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Remittances rise 5% in 2016, hit record $26.9 B

By Lawrence Agcaoili (The Philippine Star) | Updated February 16, 2017 - 12:00am

 “Cash remittances in 2016 continued to increase on the back of improving global economic conditions,” BSP Deputy Governor Diwa Guinigundo  said. File photo

MANILA, Philippines - Remittances from overseas Filipino workers went up by five percent to a new record high of $26.9 billion last year from $25.61 billion in 2015, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) reported yesterday.

 “Cash remittances in 2016 continued to increase on the back of improving global economic conditions,” BSP Deputy Governor Diwa Guinigundo  said.

The five percent growth in cash remittances was also faster than the  four percent growth target of  the BSP.

Remittances from land-based Filipino workers went up  by  7.6 percent to $21.3 billion while money sent home by sea-based workers declined   3.8 percent to $5.6 billion due to stiffer competition in the supply of seafarers particularly from East Asia and Eastern Europe.

Guinigundo said remittances from the Middle East went up  more than  12  percent last year due to  higher inflows from   Qatar, Kuwait, Oman, and the United Arab Emirates.

Remittances from Filipinos based in Asia rose 7.4 percent, buoyed by transfers originating from Singapore, Japan, China, and Taiwan.

According to Guinigundo, money sent by Filipinos from the Americas expanded 3.8 percent, fueled by the 6.2 percent rise in remittances from the US.

Guinigundo said the increases were enough to offset the 8.4 percent decline in the amount of money sent home by Filipinos from Europe particularly the United Kingdom, Italy, and the Netherlands.

The pound sterling weakened against the dollar after the UK decided to leave the European Union through a referendum last June 23.

Data released by the BSP showed about 80 percent of the total remittances last year came from the US, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Singapore, the United Kingdom, Japan, Qatar, Kuwait, Hong Kong, and Germany.

For   December alone, remittances climbed 3.6 percent to a new monthly record of $2.56 billion from the previous month high of $2.47 billion recorded in December 2015.

Major source of remittances last December were the US, Qatar, and Japan. Remittances from the over 10 million Filipinos deployed abroad account for about 9.8 percent of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP).

On the other hand, personal remittances increased 4.9 percent to a new record high of $29.71 billion last year from $28.31 billion in 2015. For   December alone, personal remittances increased   3.6 percent to $2.82 billion from $2.73 billion in the same month in 2015.

Personal remittance is computed as the sum of gross earnings of overseas Filipino workers with work contracts of less than one year, including all sea-based workers, less taxes, social contributions, and transportation and travel expenditures in their host countries.

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