OVERSEAS REMITTANCES OUTSTRIP ODA & FDI FOR POOR COUNTRIES

OVERSEAS REMITTANCES OUTSTRIP ODA & FDI FOR POOR COUNTRIES

MANILA, September 12, 2005 (STAR) (AFP) - Overseas remittances from workers in developed countries have outstripped foreign direct investment (FDI) and official development aid (ODA) as sources of funds for developing countries, financial experts said Monday.

Total overseas workers' remittances to developing countries are conservatively estimated at 200 billion dollars a year," said Donald Terry, manager of the Multilateral Investment Fund (MIF) of the Inter-American Development Bank.

In contrast, foreign direct investment amounts to about 125 billion dollars a year and official development assistance is only some 50-60 billion dollars annually, Terry told an international conference on remittances in Manila.

He estimated the number of workers sending remittances overseas at about 125 million worldwide.

This huge transfer of funds had been hidden because financial institutions were not aware how large the total was, said Robert Bestani, director-general of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) private finance department.

It was also not widely acknowledged because it was "very controversial," he added.

"It's wonderful to talk about the free flow of goods but its not wonderful to talk about the free flow of people," said Bastani.

He said this situation could increase as more of the poor sought work in developed countries while richer regions, like Europe and Japan, suffered a shortage of young workers.

India, Mexico and the Philippines were the three countries which got the largest amount of remittances from their nationals overses, said Bastani at the opening of a joint conference on how such remittances could lower poverty.

The forum, sponsored by the ADB, the UN Development Programme (UNDP) and the MIF at the ADB headquarters in Manila, will look into ways of tracking such remittances and how they can be harnessed to help the poor.

Terry remarked that the total amount of overseas remittances to poor countries was officially placed at 126 billion dollars but that all studies showed that there were still vast amounts going through unofficial channels.

The amount officially recorded as going to Asia is about 50 billion dollars a year, said Terry, about equal to the amount going to Latin America.

But considering the large amounts still going through unofficial sources, the total for Asia would more likely hit 75 billion or even 100 billion dollars a year, said Terry.

Bestani said the overseas remittances were very effective as the money was going to the poor who need it most.

However the experts said the money could have a wider multiplier effect and could also be put to better use by the recipients if they were only aware of their financial options.

Terry cited India and Ecuador where remittances were being routed through micro-finance institutions and were being used in different financial services like home mortgages.

The challenges facing financial institutions is to find ways to lower transaction costs for remittances and learn how to channel more of the money into investment, Bestani said.

The experts also warned governments against excessive intervention like taxation or forcing people to use their remitted funds in certain ways.

Bestani said it was highly unlikely that terrorists and criminals were relying on overseas remittances to launder funds, remarking that individual amounts being sent home were too small.

Congress sees no funding problem for charter change 09/12 10:43:13 AM

The House of Representatives sees no problem in the funding of charter change if this is done either this year or next year especially if the mode of amendment is through Congress which is more economical than Constitutional Convention (ConCon).

Antique Rep. Exequiel (Lakas, Antique), a vice chairman of the House committee on Constitutional amendments, pointed this out Sunday, stressing that charter change through Congress will only need P3 billion whereas P9 billion is required if the revision is done by a ConCon.

Javier said if charter change is initiated next year, there will be no problem in funding since the proposed 2006 national budget is still with the House.

“We can still realign some appropriation items to cover the expenditures for the plebiscite for the ratification of the proposed amendments,” he said.

Javier further said Congress also has the option to provide for a special or supplemental appropriations for the expenditure.

Following the resolution of the impeachment complaints in the House, Javier said the House will now vigorously pursue charter change which is strongly supported by President Gloria Arroyo herself.

Javier said Speaker Jose de Venecia has already declared that the chamber will tackle charter change proposals and the P1-trillion 2006 national when Congress resumes session on Sept. 19 after working to reconcile with the proimpeachment solons.

Javier said it was totally unfair for the President’s detractors to claim that charter change would provide her a graceful exit, noting, “The House has consistently and vigorously pursued charter change as far back during the Aquino administration so it is baseless and wrong to say charter change is needed for President Arroyo’s political survival.”

The main concern of charter change supporters, Javier said, is that charter amendment would provide stability of the country’s political structures and fast track national development.

Rise in July exports due to rebound in electronics exports: NEDA 09/12 4:21:52 PM

The National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) Monday said electronic products, which expanded 14.2 percent, after a 4.7 percent decline in the previous month, led the expansion in merchandise exports earnings.

Citing data released by the National Statistics Office (NSO), Socioeconomic Planning Secretary and NEDA Director General Augusto B. Santos noted that merchandise exports surged 11.4 percent to US$3.5 billion in July this year, a significant improvement from the previous month’s 1.0 percent growth.

“As predicted by industry experts, this (expansion in electronics products exports) may signal the rebound in electronics exports in the second semester of 2005,” said Santos.

He added that the sharp increase in merchandise exports brings the total export revenues from January to July 2005 to $22.9 billion, 4.6 percent higher compared with the same period last year.

The NEDA chief noted that semiconductors and electronic data processing machines went up 15.9 percent and 19.7 percent respectively, making up for the slowdown in consumer electronics (-10.1%) telecommunication (-73.9%), and communication /radar (-20.2%).

The United States (US) Semiconductors Industry Association reported that world semiconductor sales increased slightly in July by 0.3 percent from the previous month with sales in Asia-Pacific jumping by 8.1 percent. The nominal growth may be attributed to higher unit sales caused by the strong competition that resulted in declining prices for semiconductors.

Santos also said that manufactures other than electronics also swelled. Garments, the country’s second largest export product grew by 7.8 percent and recovered from its underperformance in the previous months following the surge of retail sales in the United States.

The US remained as the country’s biggest export market for garments and textile, accounting for more than 70 percent of the Philippine garments exports.

Other manufactures exports that grew in July, include furniture and fixtures (5.4%), chemicals (40.2%), machinery and transport equipment (4.9%), and processed food and beverages (2.8%).

The NEDA chief, however, pressed for the increased promotion of sugar-based and coconut-based fuel additives to cushion the swings in the exports of these products, noting the 5.7 percent slump in agro-based exports as sales of key products dropped.

Santos said it is best to increase local demand by expanding the industrial use of sugar and coconut products to ensure a broad livelihood base for affected farmers.

“Producing fuel-additive ethanol and coco-methyl esters will safeguard more jobs for these farmers even when world prices recede,” he declared.

The National Statistics Office reported that export of coconut products went down 7.9 percent as the world price of coconut oil continued to fall. Sugar exports likewise shrunk 56.3 percent as producers were bent on producing less with the lower raw sugar farmgate prices.

According to the Sugar Regulatory Administration, another reason for the reduction in output is the reduced sugarcane area that had been converted into banana and pineapple plantation in Bukidnon.

Santos also noted that Japan led the top export markets. Exports to Japan (17.3%) captured the biggest share of Philippine exports, followed by the US (16.8%), China (16.4%) and the Netherlands (8.5%).

Gov't hopes to raise at least 10M US dollars from sale of Imelda Marcos' jewelry 09/12 12:39:27 PM

MANILA (AP) - The Philippine government hopes to raise at least 10 million US dollars from the auction of former first lady Imelda Marcos' fabulous jewelry, an official said Monday, but the woman also known for her vast shoe collection vowed to ask a court to stop the sale.

Commissioner Ricardo Abcede of the Presidential Commission on Good Government, the agency in charge of recovering the Marcos family's alleged ill-gotten wealth, said representatives of Christie's and Sotheby's auction houses will inspect the jewels at the central bank vault on Sept. 14.

The two auction houses will bid to auction the jewelry, which includes a piece with a 37.5 carat diamond, Abcede said.

"It's now (worth) about $10 million, but it could be higher," Abcede told ABS-CBN television, saying there has been keen interest among collectors.

The proceeds will go to the government's land reform program, he added.

But Marcos, interviewed on the phone near her husband's northern home town of Batac, vowed to fight the sale in court, saying several legal cases involving the jewelry have not established that they were acquired using ill-gotten wealth.

"I'm filing a case in Manila for the PCGG to stop the sale," she told The Associated Press. "There is no (court) conviction that those were bought with ill-gotten wealth."

Marcos, 76, said she will file the case in a Manila court before the end of the week, but details were not immediately clear. Her lawyer could not be reached for comment.

She also said she was "praying" to get back the jewelry, some of which are heirloom pieces.

Imelda Marcos, widow of the late President Ferdinand Marcos, dazzled the world with her lavish city beautification projects, extravagant lifestyle and vast shoe collection, as her country languished in appalling poverty. The Marcos family was accused of amassing billions of dollars in ill-gotten wealth. The deposed dictator died in Honolulu in 1989 without admitting any wrongdoing.

His preserved body has been interred in a glass crypt in his hometown since it was flown back to the Philippines in 1993. The Marcos family's request that he be given a hero's burial has met with protests.

Mrs. Marcos traveled to Batac to mark her late husband's birthday on Sunday with her family and supporters.

Former first lady Imelda Marcos fights auction of her precious jewels 09/12 3:05:22 PM

LAOAG (AFP) - Diamonds may not be forever, but former Philippine first lady Imelda Marcos isn't ready to see hers sold off quite yet.

The widow of dictator Ferdinand Marcos, once infamous for her enormous shoe collection, said she will go to court to block the Philippines government from auctioning off her jewellery in November.

The gems were seized by the government shortly after the bloodless coup in 1986 ended their extravagant term in ofice, and Manila believes they could fetch as much as 10 million US dollars when they go on the block.

"Our lawyers are sending notices to Christie's, Sotheby's and all these international auction houses because this placement can't be sold," the 76-year-old told AFP in an interview.

"They would be endangering their clients and buyers," she said without elaborating.

The government says the jewels were bought with money embezzled from the national treasury, but Marcos rejects the claim and says the jewels are all hers -- and that authorities had no right to take them.

"Some of this jewellery are heirlooms of my family," she said. "I have not been convicted for corruption anywhere."

Marcos, who with her husband and cronies was alleged to have embezzled around 10 billion dollars during two decades in power, says the seizure was illegal.

The government says the gems are being held in the vaults of the central bank. Imelda Marcos says that when the government took them 19 years ago, they were in "32 to 34" Louis Vuitton cases.

Last week the Presidential Commission on Good Government, which is conducting a global search for the Marcos fortune, said experts from Christie's and Sotheby's would visit Manila on Wednesday to appraise the jewels.

Nick Suarez, a commission spokesman, said President Gloria Arroyo's government is eyeing an auction in Geneva in November 2005 or May 2006.

Marcos is also pressing the government to allow the burial of her husband's remains in the country's National Heroes Cemetery in the capital, and said supporters had gathered a million signatures in favour of the plan.

After his death in 1989 Ferdinand Marcos's body was preserved and kept in an air-conditioned glass case at the family home in the northern town of Batac. The government had refused to allow a burial at the Manila cemetery.

His widow said supporters plan to present the signatures to Arroyo.

"I respect her. From day one she has never been against the burial of Marcos," Imelda Marcos said, saying it was her advisers who oppose giving him a hero's burial.

"The timing will eventually depend on the president. But I know that it will come," she said. "I hope it will be sooner because justice delayed is justice denied. It's about time."

But she rejected press speculation that Arroyo would allow the burial in exchange for the Marcos daughter, legislator Imee Marcos, abandoning her calls for Arroyo's impeachment.

Imee left the country when Congress voted to kill the impeachment case last week. The daughter later said she was prevailed upon by her mother, but rejected allegations that she sold out to Arroyo.

Imelda Marcos said she persuaded her daughter to shun planned street protests by the opposition following the defeat of the impeachment case, saying she did not want her daughter to find common cause with leftist agitators.

"I said she is a Marcos, so let us do it the Marcos way. We should not go to the streets because that would lead to mob rule," Imelda Marcos said.

She said her daughter "obeyed" after the situation was explained to her.

"She is not a Marcos for nothing," the widow said.

News Chief Editor: Sol Jose Vanzi

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