Emerging Trends In PH Real Estate To Be Discussed In Upcoming Summit

Wazzup Pilipinas!

The rise of millennial travelers, Filipinos’ increasing spending power, and aggressive expansion of commercial property developers in cities outside Metro Manila -- these are just some of the key trends that will discussed during the upcoming 4th Asia Pacific Real Estate Investment Summit (APREIS), to be held at Solaire Resort & Casino on October 22.

Moderating the discussion on these emerging trends on Philippine real estate is Jacqueline van den Ende, managing director of global property website Lamudi Philippines (www.lamudi.com.ph).

The discussion’s panelists include key people from different sector of the real estate industry. They include Al Legaspi, chief operating officer of Ayala Land Hotels and Resorts, who will share insights on the opportunities and challenges facing the country’s hospitality sector; Henry Co of First Philippine Industrial Park who will discuss industrial real estate; Lars Wittig of Regus Philippines and Michael McCullough KMC MAG Group, who will both tackle office real estate; Joseph Ramil Lombos, chief financial officer of DMCI Homes, to discuss the residential sector; and Lourdes Alano of Robinsons Land and Shaun Kwan of Trakomatic, to share their insights on the key trends in retail.

Among the burning issues to be tackled on during the discussion is how the Philippines can compete with established its Southeast Asian neighbors in terms of attracting foreign visitors, how the country can sustain buoyant consumption to maintain retail boom, and the opportunities for investors in the office sector.

CHED Welcomes Passage of UniFAST Law

Wazzup Pilipinas!

The Commission on Higher Education (CHED) welcomes the passage of the Unified Student Financial Assistance System for Tertiary Education (UniFAST) through Republic Act No. 106871 which was signed on October 15 by President Benigno S. Aquino III. The Commission hails it as a Landmark Social Legislation of the Administration benefiting Filipino youth.

Designed to unify all modalities of publicly-funded Student Financial Assistance Programs (StuFAPs)—Scholarships, Grants-in-Aid and Student Loans—for Tertiary Education, the UniFAST rationalizes the allocation, utilization and client-targeting of government resources and improves access to quality higher and technical education for those who need it. It shall also serve as the ultimate national human resource development mechanism and strategy that will direct beneficiaries to priority courses needed for economic growth and development. Further, it insulates any StuFAPs modality from political labeling or partisan affiliation.

The idea of a harmonized financial assistance program emerged more than five years ago as a proposal of the NEDA-Social Development Committee, but the real work took place in 2013 after a comprehensive study was conducted by the Philippine Institute of Development Studies. CHED’s current Higher Education Reform Agenda, which deemed UniFAST a priority strategy for access, gave the necessary impetus. The Commission provided continuous technical assistance to both the Lower and Upper Houses of Congress in the formulation and eventual enactment of the Law.

The UniFAST will be governed by a Board composed of the heads of CHED, DOST and TESDA as co-chairs, with the head of DepEd and representatives from DOLE, NEDA and NYC as members. The Board, with the support of a technical secretariat, will ensure program sustainability and safeguard student welfare. It will see to it that standard-setting, client- targeting, fund allocation and prioritization are based on supply/demand situations, prices and inflationary factors, the government human resources development plan and current trends in internationally-shared human resources.

Issued this 21st day of October 2015 at the Higher Education Center Building, C.P. Garcia Avenue, Diliman, Quezon City.

(signed)
Patricia B. Licuanan, Ph.D.
Chairperson

IPR Week to Focus on Cross Border Challenges, Cooperation

Wazzup Pilipinas!

Amid the rise of cross border issues in intellectual property (IP), the program line-up for this year’s IP Week Celebration, to run from 26 to 30 October, puts focus on the regional and international challenges and cooperation relating to IP protection, enforcement and adjudication.

To open this year’s IP Week celebration is the 5th Philippine Anti-Counterfeiting and Piracy Summit on 26 October at the Marriot Hotel in Pasay City. With the theme “Building Cooperation Across Borders,” the Summit is organized by the Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines (IPOPHL) and the National Committee on IP Rights (NCIPR), the multi-agency taskforce on IP enforcement.

To supplement the presentations and discussions on the latest issues and developments in the Philippine IP enforcement, the organizers have invited foreign speakers to discuss the pressing issues in global IP enforcement and share their respective country experience on the topic. They are Mr. Hideyuki Morooka of the Japan Patent Office; Mr. Nam Ngo Thien, IPR Attaché for South-East Asia of the Embassy of France in Singapore; Mr. Louis Bonnier and Atty. Jean-Pierre Maeder of the Business Action to Stop Counterfeiting and Piracy (BASCAP); Mr. Cha Tae-won of the Korean Copyright Commission; Mr. Etienne Sanz de Acedo of the International Trademark Association; Mr. Man F. Tse of the National Intellectual Property Rights Center, USA; Mr. Ignacio de Medrano Caballero of the Office for Harmonization in the Internal Market; and Mr. Maysa Razavi of the International Trademark Association.

The Summit will also feature the awarding of this year’s IP Champions, a recognition given to the partner individuals and institutions in IP enforcement of the NCIPR and the oath-taking of the newest batch of the Young IP Advocates, an annual IP workshop for students from selected secondary schools.