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Tweet for visibility
Michael Alan Hamlin
You may be wondering what all the fuss is about Twitter.com, a free web tool that allows users to bombard friends and strangers who take an interest in them with regular updates on what they are doing and thinking about. Last week, comScore, a company that measures and tracks the digital world, announced that Twitter had more than doubled its visitor base in the space of just a month, making it the top-gaining Internet property in the US.
But Twitter’s popularity extends well beyond the US, where it added more than five million visitors in March, increasing total US visitors to more than 9.3 million. Since the beginning of the year, Twitter visitors have surged more than 1,000% according to Hitwise, another Internet intelligence gathering firm. In Singapore, Twitter increased its popularity ranking by 239 points to become one of the city-state’s top 50 websites. Worldwide, about 14 million visitors use Twitter regularly.
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Posted
4/29/2009 10:16:22 AM |
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Amidst gloom, BPO executives to confer
Michael Alan Hamlin
London-based Fitch Ratings cut its growth forecast for the Philippines over the weekend to just 0.5% for the year, the lowest growth rate since 1998. The announcement follows a revised government forecast of 3.1-4.1% growth, down from 4.6% last year and 7.2% in 2007. James McCormack, head of Asia Pacific Sovereigns for Fitch, expects remittances from overseas Filipino workers, executives, and professionals (OFWs) to contract five percent in 2009 and unemployment to increase to 8.6%. He expects exports representing 40% of GDP to decline a frightening 25%.
Does anyone still believe the Global Financial Crisis won’t affect the Philippines? Even the business process outsourcing industry is feeling the impact according to preliminary results of the latest survey conducted by the Business Processing Association of the Philippines (BPA/P) and Outsource2Philippines (O2P). The survey, administered by TeamAsia, reveals that more than 80% of respondents’ firms have been affected in some way by the crisis. (Disclosure: BPA/P is a client. I am an investor in O2P and am employed by TeamAsia.)
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Posted
4/22/2009 12:34:54 AM |
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Spend, spend, spend
Michael Alan Hamlin
Following her abrupt evacuation from the Royal Cliff Grand Hotel in Pattaya, Thailand after antigovernment protestors breached security at the site of the annual summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, Philippine president Gloria Macapagal-Arryo traveled to Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE), trying to scare up employment opportunities for Filipinos. Dubai is home to 6.4 million people, including 5.5 million foreigners, or about 86% of the population.
Filipinos account for approximately 340,000 of the foreign population. Overseas Filipinos making a living in Dubai include professionals (19%) and skilled (38%), semi-skilled (28%), and unskilled workers (19%). Other foreign workers come mostly from the United Kingdom, Germany, Sri Lanka, and Egypt. Unfortunately for these workers, the jobs that attracted them to Dubai are disappearing fast - up to 2,000 a day by one estimate.
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Posted
4/16/2009 7:18:32 PM |
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Eroding foundations
Michael Alan Hamlin
Into whose embrace will the Philippines fall?
Our family started the annual Holy Week observance following mass Sunday in our little weekend getaway in Alfonso, Cavite. Two years ago, we began “reforesting” the two-acre plus site primarily with mahogany. As I have written here on occasion the property also features a number of fruit trees - mangoes, jackfruit, chico, santol and rambutan, for instance - that predated our arrival.
Mahogany is fast-growing, and nearly two years after our seedlings were transplanted in May and June of 2006, the place is beginning to look like a legitimate forest. As the trees have grown, so has the wildlife population. Days and evenings are a symphony of sound, and watching the colorful kingfishers dart between the trees and stake out their territories provides a natural rush.
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Posted
4/8/2009 1:06:52 PM |
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Country brand & the Millennium Challange Account
Michael Alan Hamlin
The Philippine government has applied for $748.21 million in aid for five development projects under the Millennium Challenge Account (MCA) created by the U.S. Congress and former President George W. Bush in 2004. MCA was developed to provide funding for programs that contribute to the reduction of poverty through sustainable economic growth in developing countries.
The fund is administered by an independent U.S. government agency, the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC). MCC is managed by a chief executive officer overseen by a board composed of five high-level government officials such as the Secretary of State and four private-sector executives appointed by the President and confirmed by the U.S. Senate. So far, MCC has signed Compacts totaling $6.3 billion with 18 countries.
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Posted
4/1/2009 12:36:12 PM |
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