Encourage Kids to Save Money

In an effort to teach children the importance of money management, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) and partner institutions have embarked on projects that seek to enable children to grow into financially responsible adults.

Just last August, the BSP and the Bank Marketing Association of the Philippines (BMAP) launched a special “Kiddie Account Program” that aims to encourage the country’s 12 million Filipino school children to save money.

Under the program, school children up to 12 years old can open bank accounts with initial deposits of R100 or less at any of the participating banks’ head offices or their 3,000 branches.

The 12 participating banks are the Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP), Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI), China Bank Savings, East West Bank, Maybank, Philippine National Bank (PNB), Allied Bank, Banco de Oro (BDO), Philippine Savings Bank (PSBank), Philippine Veterans Bank, Security Bank, and RCBC Savings Bank.

BSP Governor Amando Tetangco Jr. said these 12 banks are investing time and resources to help Filipino children develop the habit of saving regularly.

Continue reading at Manila Bulletin

OFWs Urged to Invest in Stock Market

Overseas Filipino Consulting Firm Inc. incorporator, Donna Babadilla-Puzon, urged Overseas Filipino Workers to invest in the stock market as the Christmas season approaches, a press release from OFIC said.

The best time to invest in stock market is during the first two weeks of September, Puzon said.

She also encouraged OFWs to buy stocks of blue chip companies before the Christmas season and sell them during the last week of December as stock prices of these companies rise during this period.

The stock prices of the blue chip decline in January so they have to sell it at year-end. Blue chips are stocks of well-known company with stable financial growth, like Jolibee, BPI, and Meralco.

OFIC founder, Eric Caliboso, noted that strong economic projection of the National Economic and Development Authority for the last two quarters of 2011 gives more confidence to prospective investors in the stock market.

Continue reading at Visayan Daily Star

Pinoys Abroad Tapped to Improve MSME in PH

The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) included overseas Filipinos in the recently-launched 2011-2016 Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) Plan.

The inclusion of overseas Filipinos comes as the DTI’s Philippine Trade Training Center began its weekly training sessions targeting overseas Filipinos.

According to the plan, overseas migration “is an important factor in economic development” but its potential “has not yet been tapped”.

Thus, the plan said that overseas migration “creates opportunities for MSME development”.

These opportunities come in three ways, the plan wrote, including the following:

*Migration raises potential capital for the establishment of MSMEs in the countryside. Remittances can be channeled towards entrepreneurial endeavors such as agri-business, while helping further develop the MSME sector;
*Migration can also improve the demand for products and services by MSMEs in both the Philippines and in host countries;
*The skills and talent of overseas Filipinos could lead to new forms of businesses, knowledge transfer, and raise the productivity and efficiency of MSMEs.

MSMEs make up 99.6 percent of all total establishments in the Philippines, contributed 61.2 percent of the country’s total employment and 35.7 percent of total value added.

The introductory part of the 2011-2016 MSME Plan, developed by the SME Development Council, admitted the “growth of the MSME sector has not been vigorous enough to propel the economy”.

DTI-Philippine Trade Training Center and the Department of Labor and Employment, through the National Reintegration Center for OFWs, are jointly training overseas Filipino workers to become entrepreneurs and exporters, thus explaining the weekly two-day training sessions of PTTC for overseas Filipinos.

“These free training sessions consist of key topics on how to start a business, entrepreneurial education activities where they learn the business cycle, market supply and demand, and selling as well as preparing the business plan,” a DTI release wrote.

The remaining training sessions will be held on August 16 and 17; August 23, 24 and 31; September 1; September 6 and 7; September 13 and 14; and September 20 and 21.

Continue reading at ABS-CBN News