(From left) Roderick Queppet, head of Commercial and Nigel Lockett, country manager, respectively ofDHL Express Philippines; and Jose Victor Paterno, president and CEO and Jose Jr. Ang, Managing Director for Digital.
DHL Express has announced a new partnership with Philippine Seven Corp. (PSC), the exclusive licensee of 7-Eleven International in the Philippines, to give customers added convenience in shipping to different countries and territories.
Under the partnership, which will be officially launched early next year, customers in the National Capital Region and Calabarzon can drop off prepaid 0.5kg documents at 29 initially designated 7-Eleven stores
There will be 16 7-Eleven stores in Calabarzon (10 in Cavite, four in Laguna, and two in Rizal) and 13 in NCR (three in Quezon City, two each in Paranaque, Malabon, and Marikina and one each in Manila, Pasay, Pasig, and Caloocan).
To send documents through 7-Eleven, the DHL Express customer should create a shipment, pay through MyDHL+ and input 711CRED as the promo code. With the waybill generated, customers can pay online and proceed to any 7-Eleven branch of their choice.
MangInasal sponsors Seventeen World Tour
MangInasal is one of the sponsors of the highly anticipated return to the Philippines of the K-pop performance powerhouse, SEVENTEEN.
MangInasal booths can be found at the Philippine Arena, venue of the group’s concert on December 17.
ProPak set in Feb
More than 8,000 participants from 11 countries and regions are expected to attend ProPak Philippines, the international trade event centered on manufacturing, processing, and packaging slated on Feb 1-3, at the World Trade Center in Pasay City.
The event features 5,533 square meters of exhibition area for companies. More than 250 enterprises are expected to showcase their offerings.
The three day ProPak Philippines will gather industry leaders to discuss crucial issues and new trends, innovative technologies, and critical regulations. The trade event also serves as the perfect platform for participating industries to discover the latest developments in packaging and processing technologies across the globe.
PEZA joins #VAWfreePH
To continuously promote gender-sensitive economic zones in the country, the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) joined the 18-day campaign to end Violence Against Women (VAW) which ended last December 12.
Under the campaign, the PEZA Gender and Development (GAD) Focal Point System has conducted various activities aimed at raising awareness on the problem of violence and the elimination of all forms of violence against women and children, particularly in the ecozones.
For the duration of the event, the activities included the presentation of topics and infomercials regarding the 18-day campaign to end VAW, production of promotional materials (i.e., VAW Advocacy Shirts, 18-day campaign to end VAW streamers and banners), and the use of various online marketing collaterals such as the VAW sticker packs on Viber and VAW Zoom background during teleconferences.
Sprout Solutions launches IMPACT ‘23
Sprout Solutions, the leading homegrown B2B SaaS company and HR tech leader in the country, has launched IMPACT ‘23: The PH SaaS Challenge in partnership with Kaya Founders, one of the country’s leading early-stage investment firms that backs visionary entrepreneurs in the Philippines and Southeast Asia.
IMPACT ‘23: The PH B2B SaaS Challenge is a startup accelerator challenge designed to uncover the next wave of innovative B2B solutions from local and international early-stage startups. The program is jointly organized by Sprout, Kaya Founders, and in partnership with companies including Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Beeline.
The program is open to innovative SaaS founders and startups that are either based in the Philippines eyeing international expansion or international companies seeking to expand into the Philippines.
Shortlisted applicants will go through an eight-week program and receive mentorship, technical training, and platform access from Sprout, Kaya Founders, and other industry partners.
NextPayone of Shell’s Top Ten Innovators
Out of hundreds of applications from 17 countries, homegrown fintech platform NextPay was hailed as the runner-up in the 2022 Shell LiveWIRE Top Ten Innovators Awards for the Business Innovation Category.
Top Ten Innovators is a global competition designed to highlight and reward impactful Shell LiveWIRE entrepreneurs who are making positive contributions toward social impact, environmental sustainability and business innovation. This year, a total of 195 applications were turned in from 17 countries around the world.
The Business Innovation category recognizes enterprises that demonstrate innovative solutions in their products or services or business model, including leveraging e-commerce and digital marketing to reach new markets.
NextPay, a Filipino digital platform that puts the power of big banks to growing businesses, provides simpler all-in-one digital financial solutions to businesses, often seen as too small for traditional enterprise banking services. It offers micro, small, and medium enterprises simplified and streamlined tools to help them scale up at a fraction of the cost by automating processes to collect, send, and manage money.
Since it was introduced during the height of the pandemic in 2020, NextPay has processed more than P2.7 billion worth of payments for more than 3,500 growing companies and raised pre-seed funding from YCombinator, an established business accelerator on the global startup stage.
PLDT, Smart awarded by Maybank
PLDT Inc. and its wireless subsidiary Smart Communications, Inc. have been cited for excellence and efficiency through innovation and customer-focused solutions by Maybank Philippines Inc. (MPI), which recently commemorated its 25th year.
Recognized as among “Tiger Champions”–MPI clients and industry partners who demonstrate the same values espoused by Maybank–PLDT and Smart received two out of three awards under the Excellence and Efficiency category, which recognized companies that “achieved pioneering accomplishments that define the superior productivity of the Filipino talent.”
“As the country’s largest fully integrated telecommunications company, PLDT Group has shown excellence and efficiency through its culture of innovation and by bringing focused solutions to the changing digital lifestyle of the Filipinos,” the citation read.
IDP expands
IDP’s Makati office houses its seventh IELTS facility in the country.
The local unit of Australian-listed IDP Education Ltd opened last November its combined education placement services office under its “Study Abroad” business and International English Language Testing System (IELTS) facility at The Enterprise Center in Makati City.
The local pioneer in international education services presently operates in Pasig, Cebu, and Baguio.
IDP will open offices in at least four more major locations in the country, including Quezon City and Davao, in 2023.
As a co-owner of IELTS, the world’s most popular English-language test for work, study, and migration, IDP runs computer-delivered IELTS laboratories in Pampanga, Davao, and Bacolod. It also administers the paper based IELTS test in 30 cities in the country.
IDP opened IELTS laboratories in Pampanga, Baguio, Bacolod, and Davao this year.
Four IELTS laboratories will be put up in IDP’s future offices in Quezon City, Davao, Iloilo, and Batangas in 2023.
Big push on food safety
Jollibee Group continues to assist karinderyas (local eateries) to help them sustain their businesses and ensure safer and better food service operations.
Through its restaurant teams, Global Quality Management Unit, and Jollibee Group Foundation (JGF), Jollibee Group shared best practices on Food Safety to close to 70 local eatery owners from Metro Manila, Bulacan, Cavite, and Rizal who were part of Project Karinderya. The activity sought to spread and increase awareness of the importance of safe and clean food, with an emphasis on proper handwashing.
In mid-2020, JGF, Kasagana-Ka Development Center Inc. (KDCI), and KabuhayansaGanapnaKasarinlan Credit and Savings Cooperative (KCoop) jointly launched Project Karinderya to help both local eateries and families survive the effects of the pandemic. Through Project Karinderya, the small eateries were given financial support and training to build their owners’ skills so that they could sustain their businesses.
Project Karinderya also provided the communities’ vulnerable families with meal subsidies for 30 days. These vouchers were used to purchase meals from participating karinderyas, ensuring that the karinderyas had regular customers while addressing hunger in their respective communities.
Buy Local program
Farmers in Bulacan and Nueva Ecija receive PLDT and Smart Buy Local sustainability fund.
PLDT and its wireless unit Smart Communications Inc. in partnership with social enterprise and e-commerce platform Cropital, recently turned over Buy Local sustainability fund to farming communities in Bulacan, Nueva Ecija, and Pangasinan.
‘Buy Local’ is one of PLDT and Smart’s home-grown advocacies on livelihood that aims to help provide farmers with a sure market for their crops. Through ‘Buy Local’, harvested produce from partner farming communities are sold to PLDT and Smart’s employees at a more reasonable cost, generating more profits. Part of the sales will eventually go to a sustainability fund lent to other farmers as low-interest loans to help augment the cost of farming inputs.
PLDT and Smart turned over sustainability fund to support the farming inputs of 62 farmers in the communities of Jaen and Cabiao, Nueva Ecija, 35 farmers in San Ildefonso, Bulacan and 18 farmers in Pangasinan under the ‘Buy Local’ program.
To date, PLDT and Smart have raised more than P2 million to provide as capital support to more than 200 farmers nationwide.
