Albay hosts Asean tourism conference on climate change

By Marlon A. Loterte

LEGAZPI CITY, Albay, Sept 11 (PIA) -- Tourism ministers and policy makers from member-countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) meet today until tomorrow in Albay to craft country action plans for climate change adaptation. This aims to make each country in the region more resilient and boost tourism.

Albay hosts this year’s Asean Tourism Conference on Climate Change with the province’s showcase of resiliency which has risen from the wrath of typhoons, storm surges and many geological hazards to become one of the country’s premier tourism destinations.

The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) has also cited the province as a model in carrying out plans and measures in mainstreaming climate change adaptation in the local development process, including for the tourism industry.

Albay Governor Joey Salceda said countries of the Asean come here today as a community of nations to examine closely how tourism in the Asean can promote economic and social integration for development but as well as contribute to the global task of securing the world we have come to love and appreciate so that we, of this current generation, and the future can benefit from the provisioning, sustaining, nurturing functions of the earth.

“Our goal is a resilient Asean through inclusive tourism,” Salceda emphasized.

He said, “A resilient Asean, through tourism, is the categorical imperative for our nations and, collectively, the regional imperative is resilient Asean through inclusive tourism.”

Salceda also explained that tourism relies on the aesthetic and nurturing function of nature in many ways and so the social responsibility and accountability of governments bring them together no longer to simply talk about climate change but to seek ways meet the goals of the Asean Tourism Strategic Plan by 2015 through responsible and sustainable tourism development.

The challenges for the governments, thus, include helping reduce greenhouse gas emissions as we encourage travel and leisure, citing for instance, build “bridges” across Asean seas that encourage inter-island connectivity using Asean sea lanes rather than just airplanes.

“We have geo-economic gateways that have the potential to be further developed through tourism. We can also bank on our in city travel innovations using non-motorized transport systems,” he said.

Another is the challenge to adapt tourism businesses, destinations, food, water use, entertainment, travel options to the challenges that that changing climate and the climate extremes will present.

Governments are also confronted to seek better technological innovations that encourage tourism while enabling countries and peoples to mitigate and to adapt to climate risks, and the capacity to secure financial resources that will allow us to develop the Asean as a tourism destination that remains resilient despite challenges.

The output of this meeting, Salceda said, will be a good platform to present in the Asean Tourism meet in Laos on January 2013 that will evolve on the theme for 2013 is “Asean Hand-in-Hand, Conquering our Future.”

Participating countries are Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. (MAL-PIA5 Albay)


AKBay program benefits 231 households

By Edna A. Bagadiong

VIRAC, Catanduanes, Sept 11 (PIA) -- The Agrikultura: Kaagapay ng Bayang Pinoy (AKBay) program of the national government benefited 231 farm and fishery households from eight towns of Catanduanes.

The program was implemented by the Department of Agriculture (DA) through National Agricultural and Fishery Council (NAFC) and was funded under the Japan Grant Assistance for Food Security Project for Underprivileged Farmers.

It supports the attainment of Millennium Development Goal 1, the eradication of extreme poverty and hunger.

Under the program, where majority of the beneficiaries chose swine raising, each recipient household received P10,000 in the form of loan checks as start-up funds for their livelihood projects.

These loans are interest-free and collateral-free.

Aside from the start-up funds, the program extends technical assistance to the beneficiaries in project identification, project proposal writing/development, and project implementation, as well as in marketing the goods.

The loan number recipients from the different towns are as follows: Bagamanoc, 30; Baras, 28; Bato, 29; Gigmoto, 31; Pandan, 30; Panganiban, 25; San Miguel, 23; and Viga, 35.

Beneficiaries underwent resource-based, short-gestating, micro-scale livelihood projects in agriculture and fisheries and are required to put up some equity in the form of land, labor, cost of utilities and required project materials harvested freely in the project area.

Since the program targets only the poorest farm households in 4th, 5th and 6th class municipalities nationwide, there are no recipients from the other three towns of the province. An amount of P2.09 million from the total P4.4 million allocation has been released for Catanduanes in June 2011.

Meanwhile, recipients of AKBay livelihood project expressed gratitude with the promise of repaying in accordance the terms of the program. (MAL/EAB-PIA5-Catanduanes)


Legazpi City ready for more IT-BPO companies expanding operations

LEGAZPI CITY, Albay, Sept 11 (PIA) -- This city is ready for Information Technology-Business Process Outsourcing (IT-BPO) companies that are expanding their operations outside established hubs like Metro Manila, Cebu and Clark.

“In a big way, we are ready to take in more IT-BPO entries,” City Mayor Carmen Geraldine Rosal said on Wednesday following the city’s hosting of the IT-BPO road show entitled “ICT Road Show in the Next Wave Cities: Harnessing ICT for a Smarter Countryside.”

The road show held at the La Piazza Hotel was organized by the Information and Communications Technology Office (ICTO) of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) in coordination with the Albay Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Association and the Legazpi City ICT Council.

ICTO is the Philippine Government’s lead agency on ICT-related matters. Its primary thrusts are in the ICT Industry Development, e-Government, ICT policy development, Internet for all and cybersecurity.

The road show, attended by thousands of students, professionals and other stakeholders in the ICT industry, aims to encourage incoming college students to take ICT-related, engineering and architecture courses to support and take advantage of the country’s fast growing IT-BPO industry.

Panelists of the event were from the Business Processing Association of the Philippines (BPAP), Contact Center Association of the Philippines, Healthcare Information Management Outsourcing Association of the Philippines (HIMOAP), Philippine Software Industry Association (PSIA) and Game Developers Association of the Philippines (GDAP).

From here, the next leg of the road show will be on September 7 in Palayan City to be co-organized by the Tech-Novo Ecijano Association Inc.

Rosal said the readiness of the city for more IT-BPO operations is further attested to by its being named into the 10 Next Wave Cities in the country’s BPO industry list of the BPAP last year.

Considered by the BPAP as a feeder city for providing highly qualified manpower to other outsourcing centers across the country, Legazpi joined top listed Davao City and other early entrants to the New Wave Cities such as Bacolod, Baguio, Malolos, Iloilo, Cavite, Lipa and Cagayan de Oro.

The city, the government’s regional center for Bicol, also scored high in the cost of doing business and availability of needed physical IT infrastructures to support the outsourcing industry, the BPAP said.

Its accessibility through land, air and sea transport from Manila, Cebu and other areas of the country added to having reliable telecommunications providers like Smart, Globe, Bayantel and PLDT that provides dependable internet and bandwidth connectivity are important factors that attracted BPO investors to locate in the city, it added.

Being a New Wave City provides a great avenue for local empowerment as increases talent pool and stem salary and rental inflation. It also eases the pressures to raise salaries and rental rates in these major hubs, and spread the benefits of employment, higher incomes and increased business activity across the country.

The BPAP said it sees the Philippines maintaining its position as one of the world's top outsourcing destination, generating annual revenue of USD 25 billion by 2015. More companies are expected to sub-contract services to companies in the Philippines as a way to cut costs.

BPAP said the Philippines is seen to maintain its market share of around 10 percent, despite emerging competitors like Vietnam and other countries in South America also joining the race for more clients. The country’s BPO industry currently employs around 600,000 people.

“We have talents for this industry. We have good schools that produce good graduates. We have good command of the English language. We have the facilities. We have the necessary support of the academe, and there is the definite and strong partnership between the private groups and the local government,” Rosal said.

In support to this the Southern Luzon Technological College Foundation Inc. (SLTCFI) which is itself an IT-BPO provider and training center based here has launched the country’s first BPO high school, a significant step in fortifying the city’s classification as an IT-BPO location.

SLTCFI BPO High School integrates BPO curriculum in the high school and as the pioneer in offering the Business Process Service Management courses in the Philippines, SLTCFI ensures that its graduates are equipped with skills for supervisory positions once they apply for jobs in BPO companies. (MAL/DOC-LGU Legazpi CIty/PIA5)