Mining industry’s Code advances
The Philippine Mineral Reporting Code Committee (PMRC Committee), as the national reporting organization (NRO), is spearheading the advancement of the mineral reporting code in the Philippines for the purpose of having a reporting standard abreast with other internationally recognized reporting codes.
Referred simply in the mining industry as the Code, the PMRC, as adopted by the Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) and The Philippines Stock Exchange (PSE), sets out minimum standards, recommendations and guidelines for Public Reporting of Exploration Results, Mineral Resources and Ore Reserves for solid mineral raw materials.
PMRC Committee has led the process of revising and upgrading the Code. Today, the first draft of the PMRC 2020 Code, an advanced upgrade of its 2007 Edition — is ready for industry and public exposure.
“Simply put, the new ‘Code’, once adopted by the SEC and the PSE, sets out the highest standards, recommendations and guidelines for Public Reporting that will help elevate the level of trust and confidence we need for the mining industry” explains Engr. Ciceron “Jun”A. Angeles, Jr., PMRC committee chairman.
The PMRC Committee is composed of the Philippine Society of Mining Engineers (PSEM), the Geological Society of the Philippines (GSP), and the Society of the Metallurgical Engineers of the Philippines (SMEP), together with the PSE and other minerals industry-related organizations.
Security Bank, SB Capital bag top spots at PDS awards
The Security Bank group was recognized by the country’s fixed income exchange, the Philippine Dealing System (PDS) Group, at the recently concluded PDS Annual Awards held on March 26.
The bank bagged the Top Fixed-Income Cash Settlement Bank award for generating the highest volume for the year, as measured by the total number of fixed-income transactions settled. Meanwhile, the bank’s investment house SB Capital was recognized among the Top 5 Corporate Issue Managers/Arrangers in 2020.
“Public interest in fixed income as a form of investment during unprecedented times has grown exponentially, with more clients looking to safe-haven investments as a form of insurance in these tough times. This recognition is a testament to our commitment to providing BetterBanking experiences to our clients. These accolades are important as it indicates that we are doing our jobs right and that we are serving our customers well,” said SB Capital president Virgilio Chua.
INC to hold Lingap Covid-19 Relief Drive in NCR Plus
The Iglesia Ni Cristo (INC) is stepping up its Covid-19 pandemic assistance by allocating close to P10 million worth of relief goods to cities and provinces in the NCR Plus bubble, a Church official said on April 18.
INC’s humanitarian drive, under its Lingap sa Mamamayan program, will distribute “goody bags” to densely populated areas most affected by the coronavirus starting April 18 until April 30, in close coordination with their respective local government units.
“Executive Minister Eduardo V. Manalo and the entire INC continue to act on the spirit of Bayanihan that our government is spearheading. We as a Church will do our share in providing assistance to our countrymen in need,” said Bro. Glicerio P. Santos IV of the INC’s Finance Department, adding, “We are driven by Executive Minister Manalo’s malasakit sa kapwa.”
The initial phase of the Lingap initiative, with an allocated budget of Php 9.8M, will involve LGUs and provinces in the NCR Plus bubble: Quezon City (P1.6M worth of goody bags); P500T each for Manila and Caloocan; P300T each for Las Piñas, Makati, Malabon, Mandaluyong, Marikina, Muntinlupa, Navotas, Parañaque, Pasay, Pasig, Pateros, San Juan, Taguig, Valenzuela; P500T each for Laguna and Cavite; and P1M each for Rizal and Bulacan.
The INC official pointed out that the current Lingap is a continuation of the series of humanitarian initiatives supervised by former General Auditor Bro. Glicerio B. Santo, Jr. for several years.
Successful Lingap and Aid to Humanity campaigns had been held throughout the Philippines, in various parts of Asia, Africa, Australia-New Zealand, the American continent and in Europe.
HPE, Globe Telecom tie-up
Hewlett Packard Enterprise announced last April 13 that it has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Globe Telecom to offer low latency cloud services at the edge of its network using HPE’s new Multi-access Edge Compute (MEC) solution.
Delivered to select users via a newly built Edge Incubation Lab, data-intensive workloads such as artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning closer is being moved by Globe to customers for faster data processing and analysis. HPE is enabling this offering with a pre-integrated, telco-grade MEC solution capable of integrated management, service operation, and traffic control. The HPE MEC as-a-service solution is delivered through HPE GreenLake giving customers like Globe the ability to start small and have the flexibility to scale out to meet future requirements.
Globe has deployed HPE’s MEC solution at their Edge Incubation Lab and is now offering select customers value-added edge services such as AI-powered video analytics, industrial automation, cloud gaming, and virtual reality (VR) retail services. Once the trial comes to a conclusion, Globe plans to roll out its edge services at scale via its growing 5G network.
Rakuten Viber empowering businesses
Rakuten Viber suite of business solutions has shown significant expansion and results with a recorded 21 percent increase in business messages sent worldwide during the last year; while a 37 percent growth shows more brands are exchanging transactional messages with their customers.
The messaging app has also noted that there has been a 58 percent surge in the number of new business channels launched by brands.
In the Philippines, the numbers are even higher. The amount of new brand-owned business channels launched soared by 211 percent and business messages sent have increased by 244 percent with transactional messages growing by 299 percent, showing that Viber became one of the dominant platforms for businesses in the country when it comes to delivering quality customer service.
This upswing in businesses choosing Viber coincides with the app recording a 421 percent growth of users across the Asia Pacific region in 2020, with a 24 percent percent increase in the Philippines .
