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By Luis Leoncio The Philippines had the most robust economy in Asia for 2016 when it posted a 6.8-percent full-year growth as gross domestic product (GDP) expansion moderated in the fourth quarter to 6.6 percent.

By Riza Lozada Diversified Phinma Corp. has completed preparatory work to build new wind power plants to expand its wind-generation capacity by 40 megawatts (MW) in the Visayas grid, but a top official of the company said it needed guidelines from government on feed-in tariff to pursue such projects.

The Duterte administration has made headway into tapping China for its massive infrastruc­ture buildup plan. During a re­cent economic mission to Chi­na, a high-level delegation led by Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III presented three large-scale infrastructure proj­ects to Beijing for possible loan financing, while nine others were submitted for feasibility study support.

The Philippines re­tained its score of 35 out of a perfect 100, indicating a corrup­tion-free public sec­tor, in the annual Corruption Percep­tions Index (CPI) of Transparency Inter­national (TI), even as the country slid in the annual ranking as it placed 101st out of 176 countries this year. compared to its 95th place out of 168 countries last year.

By Luis Leoncio The country’s “state of democracy” im­proved last year, based on the annu­al Democracy Index of think tank Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) as it placed 50th out of 167 countries from 54th last year, which placed it at par with the United States in the group of so-called flawed de­mocracy.

The Duterte administration has as­sured that there will be no change in the value-added tax (VAT) ex­emption for senior citizens and persons with disabilities (PWDs).

The P1 Asean (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) 2017 commemorative coin was of­ficially unveiled by President Duterte and Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) Governor Amando M. Tetangco Jr. during the launch of the Philippines’ Asean 2017 Chairmanship in Davao City on January 15.

Many jobs can be performed just as well outside of the work­place with the aid of technolo­gy, such as in the employee’s home, that employers and em­ployees can explore together and agree on to address traf­fic and work-life balance is­sues, said a labor executive. Mary Grace Riguer, OIC-executive director of the Institute for Labor Studies, an attached agency of the …

By Riza Lozada The country has among the world’s cheapest cost for hous­ing but the income of most Filipinos is not enough to afford to purchase a home for their family.

Listed East West Banking Corp. (EastWest) will issue up to P10 billion long-term negotiable certificate of deposit (LTNCD) which will be initially offered with terms of 5.5 and 7 years and the pro­ceeds from which will be used for expansion of long-term de­posit base and for general funding purposes. The Monetary Board of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) recently …