June 7, 2007

 Do you have money that you can use to earn more money?

Try investing in the stock market. This is the advise of Philippine Stock Exchange Inc. which, in coordination with the Department of Trade and Industry provincial office, held a stock market road show in Dagupan.

The PSE is conducting the market road show in different cities of the country to draw in people into investing in stock market. It is a part of the PSE’s intensified campaign to increase stock market awareness in the country to inform more people about the benefits of a long-term investment in securities.

Melchor Guerrero, vice president and head of the Capital Markets Development Division of the PSE, said it was "strange, almost incredible, that in this age of great leap, not even one percent of the 88 million Filipinos has had any experience in stock market investment." Read more

 
BEIJING - An aggressive international land development and acquisition company with projects in the United States, Asia and Latin America is now finalizing talks for long-term business partnership with the owners of Lee Yuan Investments that owns Marriot Beijing Hotel West.
 

This was jointly disclosed by Meadow Heights Ltd president Jo Victoria Edralin Yupangco and CEO Joana Edralin Bautista as formal talks with Jing Yu Mansions Corporation are now in final negotiation stages.
 

Part of the on-going talks is the acquisition of the 18-storey Beijing Marriot Hotel located at 98 XiSanhuan North Road with 117 rooms, 38 suites and five meeting rooms with 757 square meter total meeting space.
 

“We are excited to seal this long-term business partnership with Lee Yuan Investments and Jing Yu Mansions Corporation including the Marriot Hotel venture which will be a testament to China’s booming economy as well as the forthcoming 2008 Olympics in Beijing,” said J.V.  Edralin Yupangco. She is a cum laude graduate from the London School of Economics with a Masters degree in Media and Communications and a summa cum laude from Kings College London with a BA in English Language and Communications.
 

The Edralins are engaged in several business ventures in the United States, Philippines and Central America. One such venture is the progressive and thriving Chateau Fontainebleau Vineyard at St. Helena in Napa Valley town in Napa Valley, San Francisco, California. In fact, its wine label, Josephine Cabernet Sauvignon, is named after its Meadow Heights chairperson Josephine Edralin.
 

Chateau Fontainebleau is strategically located in the portion of the Napa Valley floor where temperature, rainfall and alluvial soils combined in perfect measure to produce some of the world’s finest grapes and of course, a world-class and award winning Cabernet Sauvignon.
 

In the Philippines, they own the Urdaneta Villas based in eastern Pangasinan which will be developed into a high-end residential and resort area.
 

The other flagship project of the Edralins is the Playa Carillo Resort in Costa Rica which is a joint venture between Fontainebleau Holdings and Madison Partners, one of the Top 10 big U.S. developers based in Texas.
 

According to Fontainebleau CEO Joana Bautista, the infrastructure construction will start in March 2007 starting with a 5-star beach hotel containing 150 to 250 rooms in partnership with Ritz Carlton.
 

SAN CARLOS CITY, Pangasinan – “Give man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach him how to fish and he will eat for a lifetime.”

Thus said retired Police Deputy Director General Reynaldo V. Velasco as he quoted Chinese philosopher Confucius in formally announcing the staging of the four day Victorey Job Fair from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. in Bayambang at the Ramos Espanol Building on December 3 and on December 4 to 6 in this city at the PESO Building in cooperation with the Office San Carlos City Julian Resuello and Bayambang Vice Mayor Boy Soriano respectively.

“We want to provide a long-term solution to the vicious cycle of poverty, patronage politics and dependency. This is the reason why we have invited some Japanese friends to employ some of our provincemates in the third district so that they will have chance for a better life if they have stable jobs,” Velasco said even as he thanked the two local leaders in welcoming the job fair in their respective localities. Read more

Mango and bamboo, which rhyme and exist together to propel this city’s economy, were “honored” by the residents during the Mango and Bamboo Festival on April 29.

This city (pop: 170,000) is known as the biggest producer of mango in Pangasinan, the number one province in the production of the national fruit in the country, said Mayor Julian Resuello.

About 2,200 hectares of land in the city are planted to mango with an estimated 200,000 trees, with about 150,000 already fruit-bearing.

But aside from producing the sweet fruit, San Carlos is also known as a trading center of mango, Resuello said.  “Only 20 percent of mangoes traded in the city are produced here, while 80 percent are from other towns of the province.”

Many city residents have mastered the technology of mango production and are hired in other provinces for their skills. “They know the technology starting from growing mango trees to flower induction to marketing the fruits,” Resuello said.

Mango producers from the city are scattered to over 13 provinces with mango orchards, he added.

However, the city has no processing plant for mango and the fruit is sold fresh locally and internationally.

Bamboo is another gift of nature to this city with about 150 kilometers of rivers and creeks crisscrossing it. “The banks are planted to bamboo which the residents turn into furniture like sala sets and beds, decors and bahay-kubo,” Resuello said.

The city has a market exclusively for bamboo products and traders usually come to buy wholesale. The idea of  building transferable bahay-kubo actually came from a city resident.

The city grows bamboo known locally as “kawayan tua” and “kawayan bayog.”

At least 17 barangays are involved in bamboo crafts, Resuello said.
 
 

With more people decorating their homes or offices with aquarium, ornamental fishes are becoming a good business to plunge into.  
Certainly, there is a big business potential for aquarium fishes both locally and abroad because the country lacks production and that pet shops have to import exotic fishes from other countries.
According to Westly Rosario, chief of the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources- National Integrated Fisheries and Development Center (BFAR-NIFDC) in Dagupan City, there are only 15 commercial-scale producers of ornamental fishes in the Philippines, and the production is not even enough to penetrate the export market.  
“There is a certain volume to be reached, but the ornamental fish raisers do not produce enough and are not organized to meet the volume,” Rosario explained. 
The NIFDC is willing to extend technical assistance to persons interested in the production of aquarium fishes, and even sells breeders at a cost much lower than the pet shops.  

Read more

White. Red. Brown. Black. These are the colors of the mushrooms produced by the Balikatan Farmers Multi Purpose Cooperative (BFMPC) based in San Angel village in Rosales, an eastern Pangasinan town.

The members used to produce only the kabuting saging (native variety) and the oyster mushroom.

But Coop manager Venacio Abalos said that lack of dried banana leaves to grow kabuting saging ("the easiest variety to grow as it takes only 10-12 days for spawn to germinate") forced the members to shift to oyster mushroom (Pleurotus ostreatus) and venture into bagging technology – making fruiting bags where oyster mushrooms grow.

The project was a successful one that the coop could hardly cope with the demand for the fruiting bags. "We produce an average of 4,000 fruiting bags and 3,000 bottles of spawn each month which we deliver to different towns of Pangasinan and other provinces," Abalos said.

Read more