Business

By Riza Lozada Taiwan’s biggest lender to small and medium enterprises (SMEs), First Commercial Bank had started local operations to become the first foreign bank to set up a Philippine branch under Republic Act (RA) 10641 or the Act Liberalizing the Entry and Scope of Operations of Foreign Banks in the Philippines enacted in July 2014.

The government-owned Land Bank of the Philippines (LandBank) and the Japanese government have signed a loan agreement to fund a five-year project that aims to jumpstart agribusiness investments in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) and other conflict-affected areas in the South as part of the recent state visit of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

The Department of Budget and Management (DBM) started its budget preparation process for next year with a Budget Forum held at the Philippine International Convention Center in Pasay City.

Filipinos who have no access to financial institutions will now have a chance to be part of the government’s financial inclusion program after the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) allowed banks to tap cash agents that include retail stores.

By Riza Lozada Better relations with China and the recov­ery of the country’s stainless industry, along with the production cutback in some nickel ore producing regions present an opportunity for the lo­cal nickel ore mining indus­try to cash in on improved nickel ore prices in the world markets this 2017, listed firm Nickel Asia Corp. said.

Robinsons Retail Hold­ings Inc.’s (RRHI) reported its net income increased by 11.1 percent to P3.3 billion for the first nine month of last year from P2.97 billion a year ago.

Fuel distributor Phoenix Pe­troleum Philippines Inc. (PNX) has tapped Globe Business, the corporate information and communications technolo­gy arm of Globe Telecom, for the use of G Suite to maximize business efficiency.

Ayala Corp. unit AC Energy Holdings Inc. (AC Energy) signed investment agree­ments with UPC Renewables Indonesia Ltd for the develop­ment, construction, and oper­ation of a 75-megawatt (MW) wind farm project in Sidrap, South Sulawesi, Indonesia.

The Asian Develop­ment Bank’s (ADB) operations that in­cluded approvals of loans and grants, techni­cal assistance, and cofinanc­ing reached an all-time high of $27.15 billion in 2015, a 19 percent increase over the $22.89 billion in 2014, accord­ing to ADB figures.

Domestic liquidity or M3 is expected to remain high following the ban against trust entities from tapping the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas’ (BSP) overnight de­posit facilities and the Term Deposit Fa­cility (TDF).