Eco stimulus fund safe area to invest, says SSS

Eco stimulus fund is safearea to invest says Neri President and Chief Executive Officer Romulo L. Neri of the Social Security System explains to the Davao media on Thursday that SSS will only engage in safe investment like the proposed P300-billion economic stimulus fund.

Neri said they are looking at this scheme because they will be lending under sovereign guarantee even as he said that it would be purely an investment which is expected to earn reasonable yield based on benchmark rates.

SSS he said eyes an investment of about P12 billion or one-fourth of the government financial institutions' share of infrastructure projects or less than five percent of the total assets of SSS. Under the Social Security Law, the SSS can finance domestic infrastructure projects provided that the investment shall be guaranteed by the Philippine government.

SSS will invest 30 percent of their funds to infrastructure and 40 percent on government securities. And all are invested in the Philippines and nothing on foreign exposure. SSS also maintains a solid balance sheet, he said.

The proposed investment still has to be finalized he said and the other financial institutions namely the Government Insurance System, Land Bank of the Philippines and the Development Bank of the Philippines will come in for as long as the investment is sound.He said participating on this investment would create jobs which could probably help those would be affected SSS members because of the financial crisis.

To pump prime the economy, funds are ready to fund Mindanao rural infra

There is budget for implementation of rural infrastructure project in Mindanao.

Director Helena B. Habulan of the Municipal Development Finance Office of the Department of Finance said there is budget and this is more than the $10 million funding under the Mindanao Rural Development Program (MRDP) for the first set of projects for implementation within the first six months this year.

"We have the budget that can cover more than the $10 million fund and there is about P1.3 billion to be spent this year in Mindanao rural projects," she said.

The Department of Agriculture (DA) as what Undersecretary Jesus Emmanuel M. Paras said the rural infrastructure is upon instruction of President Arroyo for their department to focus more on infrastructrure development in Mindanao and with the MRDP phase 2 some $10 million is programmed for implementation of infrastructure projects for the first semester this year.

The implementation will take within next two months and this would consists of farm to market roads, cold storage, post harvest facilities and rehabilitation of irrigation systems.

The rural infra project aims to generate employment especially during this time of crisis and the MRDP is a program implemented under DA geared towards alleviation of the poor communities in Mindanao and jointly funded by World Bank, DA and the local government units.

World Bank team leader Carolina F. Geron said the release of funds will given directly to the LGUs even as she said that the process went through consultation with them and the LGUs and the communities and the DA.

The projects pass through national competitive bidding and part of the agreement is to allocate 70 percent of labor to be taken from the local communities and this type of intervention will have impact at the local level.

The implementers of the program are accountable of the project the WB representative said and Geron continued that it is important to really build their capacity.

Anti-corruption measures she said are embodied in the MRDP projects and their role is to ensure that measures are implemented in all the projects.

The $10 million fund or P586 million comprises 90 percent of farm to market road, 6 percent potable water system, 2 percent for single bridges, and 2 percent on irrigiation projects. Another P200 million is for livelihood assistance and P40 million for protection and sustainable management of natural resources.

MRDP 2 covers 27 provinces in Mindanao and 225 town of the 400 municipalities of the island with 75 subprojects. The rural infa component under MRDP 1 covered only 19 municipalities with total project cost of P160.889 million for the 25 subprojects on the ground.

Davao into construction boom !

2008 is projected by business leaders here as a boom in the construction industry as more infrastructure projects are in the pipeline for the next three years.

The construction industry attributed to more projects as it heavily depends on high government spending on infrastructure where projection of money to be poured in is estimated to be between P2 to P3 billion.

The sector however noted the growing individual constructions that are being carried out mostly by overseas Filipino workers in high end residential areas of the city.

They saw also the growth in real estate aside from high end residences to socialized and medium construction of housing units hence the boom of the construction industry is now felt in Davao especially that all big time contractors in Manila are now here.

Among those that already made there presence here with ongoing projects are Robinsons in Bajada, the Ayala Land where it is developing a ten-hectare area along J P Laurel Avenue, the Davao Motor Sales in Lanang, the Consunji Group where it is building two condominium structures along Ecoland, Filinvest Land, Inc. where some seven single medium rise buildings for condominium to be constructed in Ecoland and the Crown Asia Group of Companies that continue to build both medium and high-end residences.

Given the right environment the boom is here and will be there for the next five years depending on the political situation and peace and order. And with the peace agreement hopefully to be realized soon will become an added boost to the industry. If the situation warrant the boom of the industry could even last for the nest 20 years. Who would not want this to happen in our city where more money will be in circulation, a stable economy. and not only that there will be more jobs for the people.