Energy Development Corporation, BenCab team up for the environment

Energy Development Corporation, BenCab team up for the environment

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L-R: Lopez Group Foundation Inc. president Cedie Lopez Vargas, artist BenCab, LGFI Operations head Angela Lopez Guingona and EDC CSR manager Rei MedranoEnergy Development Corporation (EDC) and National Artist BenCab (Benedicto Cabrera) have joined hands in saving and propagating endangered premium native trees.

With the University of the Philippines-Baguio and the Philippine Society for the Study of Nature, EDC and BenCab Art Foundation Inc. (BAFI) planted 100 seedlings of 18 endangered tree species at BenCab’s farm in Tuba, Benguet recently.

The tree-planting activity is part of EDC’s BINHI: A Greening Legacy project, a nationwide reforestation and biodiversity preservation project to arrest forest degradation, contribute to climate change mitigation and provide sustainable livelihood for forest communities.

BAFI, EDC’s 97th partner for the project’s Tree for the Future module, will host the permanent planting area within the eco-trail of BenCab Museum and share in the responsibility of implementing the long-term protection, monitoring and maintenance of the planted trees until these have grown into mother trees.

Launched in 2008, BINHI is focused on bringing back highvalue but fast-dwindling native

trees such as yakal, tindalo, kamagong, mangkono and ipil.

Rei Medrano, EDC manager for CSR, said: “We source the few remaining seedlings of endangered premium native trees and grow them into mother trees in planting sites where they can

be best protected and nurtured…. These mother trees will be used to propagate more seedlings for transplant all over the country.”

EDC has already rescued 85 premium endangered tree species out of the 96 target priority species with the help of its BINHI partners nationwide, Medrano added. (By Toni Nieva)

Four in five investors consider sustainability issues – PwC survey

Four in five investors have looked at sustainability issues in one or more investment contexts in the last year, according to research from PwC. However, investors also cited dissatisfaction with current reporting standards.

PwC asked investors representing over $7.6 trillion (£4.5tn) in assets under management, including asset managers and pension funds, about a range of sustainability issues, including climate change, resource scarcity and corporate social responsibility.

The study found that investors are most likely to care about sustainability issues during shareholder-corporate engagement, proxy voting and when looking at their investment strategy, with over half those questioned having incorporated some areas of sustainability into their strategy. The interest in sustainability issues was particularly evident when investors were looking at issues involving corporate social responsibility and good citizenship.

The biggest driver behind considering sustainability issues was to mitigate risk, with 73% highlighting this as a reason. Failing to consider sustainability can have a negative impact on investors in the long term. For example, investing in a carbon intensive business at a time when the world is trying to cut emissions and bringing in regulation to do so, could result in lower returns and higher risk in the future.

Encouragingly, over half actively wanted to avoid firms with unethical practices and acknowledged that doing so could enhance performance. Some have argued that sustainable investment means performance sacrifice but in recent years this myth has been withering away, as more evidence against it has emerged.

Despite the growing interest in sustainable investment, investors are finding a lack of common standards frustrating and this is putting some of them off. Globally there is a high level of dissatisfaction around the sustainability-related information being provided by companies, with Europe being the only region were more investors were satisfied than dissatisfied.

The report states, “The lack of common standards to assess the materiality of environmental or social issues may be affecting investors’ ability to consider these issues as they want. Two-thirds of investors responding to our survey say that they would be more likely to consider this type of information when making investment decisions if common standards were used.”

This dissatisfaction is demonstrated in investors strongly supporting that companies should periodically assess multiple types of risk. Over 90% of respondents backed labour rights, human health and climate change in regards to regulatory risk being regularly assessed.
Even for the issue that received the lowest support – other social issues, such as increasing income inequality – periodical assessment was supported by 74% of participants.

Looking to the future, investors believe an increasing importance will be placed on sustainability issues and this is reflected in the fact that more and more investors want to engage directly with the companies on the challenges.

Over the next 12 months, 89% of investors that identified sustainability issues as relevant indicated they would request information from a company. Additionally, two-thirds are likely to seek a meeting with the companies’ boards or management, suggesting that investors are taking the issues around sustainability more seriously and want their portfolio to reflect this.

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Invest Malaysia - PM Najib announces liberalisations

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KUALA LUMPUR: Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak has announced new liberalisation measures to further promote investments in a broader spectrum of assets.

The Prime Minister said one of the measures was the removal of the mandatory requirement for credit ratings effective Jan 1, 2017.

He said a gradual approach was being adopted to provide industry players sufficient time to further refine mechanisms necessary to operate under the new regime.

"From Jan 1 next year, flexibilities will be accorded with regards to credit ratings and the tradability of unrated bonds and sukuk," he said in his keynote address at Invest Malaysia 2014 on Monday.

The Prime Minister also announced that the equity shareholding for credit rating agencies would be liberalised.

International Credit rating agencies with full foreign ownership will be allowed in the Malaysian market from Jan 1, 2017, he added.

"The entry of international agencies will further enhance the quality and standard of rating services, introduce a more competitive fee structure and widen both expertise and the range of credit rating services on offer," Najib said.

World Cocoa Foundation Co-Hosts International Conference on Cocoa Sustainability in Indonesia

World Cocoa Foundation Co-Hosts International Conference on Cocoa Sustainability in Indonesia
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NUSA DUA, BALI, INDONESIA, May 14, 2014 – The global sustainable cocoa community convenes in Nusa Dua, Bali, Indonesia, on May 15-16 for the Sixth Indonesian International Cocoa Conference and 25th World Cocoa Foundation (WCF) Partnership Meeting. The unprecedented alliance between conference co-hosts, the Indonesian Cocoa Association (ASKINDO) and WCF, will bring together leaders in sustainability from across the cocoa supply chain. The event’s theme is “Empowering Smallholders for a Sustainable Cocoa Industry.”

Empowering People, Changing lives program with Cocoa section

Indonesia: Meeting the Transport Challenge

 

Indonesia the Asian powerhouse- but what happens when a country lacks much of the infrastructure, required to realize its full potential? 

What is the answer to improve transport connectivity and enhance equity?

Reinvent the wheel or the fundamentals?

Did you miss the broadcast premiere on Channel News Asia in December 2013?  

 

Watch it on-line now from our Vimeo site: 

Indonesia: Meeting the Transport Challenge

Fueling Development in the Philippines

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Didn't catch the premiere broadcasts?  

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 Fueling Development in the Philippines 

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Moody’s notes Philippine gains

STRONG FIRST quarter growth, coupled with a steady improvement in the government’s finances, bode well for the Philippines’ credit rating, Moody’s Investors Service said.

      In a credit outlook released yesterday, Moody’s hailed the 7.8% gross domestic product (GDP) growth in the first quarter, which beat market expectations and the government’s full-year target of 6-7%.

"GDP growth in the Philippines is on an upward trend, in contrast to lackluster global growth performance," Moody’s noted.

"On a year-on-year basis, the Philippines’ first-quarter real GDP growth is the strongest among all rated countries in the Asia-Pacific region, outpacing larger emerging markets such as China (7.7%) and Indonesia (6%)."

Moreover, Moody’s cited the P36.8-billion fiscal surplus posted in April -- the highest monthly surplus on record that was driven by a 28.9% jump in income tax collections.

"The improvement in tax receipts demonstrates that the government’s efforts to bolster tax compliance are gaining traction and helping to boost revenue generation, one of the key weaknesses of the Philippines’ credit profile," it said.

It added that with President Benigno S. C. Aquino III sticking to a campaign promise not to raise taxes, it was important for his government to prove that its strategy of raising revenues via tax compliance could work.

Year to date, meanwhile, the government has posted a fiscal deficit of P29.68 billion and Moody’s noted the "moderate" increase could suggest spending restraint on the part of the government despite the May midterm elections.

"[T]he government’s spending decisions are increasingly driven by long-term economic objectives rather than short-term political ones," it noted.

It likewise praised the speedy roll-out of infrastructure projects so that these wouldn’t be compromised by the Commission on Elections’ ban on public spending leading up to the May elections.

Moody’s forecast that the government would hit its P238-billion deficit target for this year -- equivalent to 2% of GDP -- unlike in 2010 when frenzied campaign spending bloated the deficit to P293.2 billion, over the target of P131.6 billion or 3.5% of GDP.

"The government thus largely honored the constraints imposed in order to provide for free and fair elections, while simultaneously maintaining fiscal discipline," it said.

In summary, Moody said, "these developments are credit positive."

The rosy outlook boosted hopes that the debt watcher would soon raise the Philippines’ credit rating to investment grade. Moody’s currently rates the Philippines at Ba1, one notch below.

The two other major debt watchers, Standard & Poor’s and Fitch Ratings, earlier this year upgraded the Philippines to BBB-, taking the country to investment grade.

Mr. Aquino, for his part, yesterday said he did not want to predict Moody’s actions. He told reporters, however, that the government was hoping to give the credit rater enough reason to award an upgrade.

"I don’t want to preempt them ... But I think the second quarter figures should be of the same ilk [as first quarter GDP growth]. We are hoping that they will be same or even better," Mr. Aquino said.

Moody’s has yet to visit the Philippines this year.

"We are still working on a date with the Moody’s team," Investor Relations Office Executive Director Claro P. Fernandez said.

"They do a due diligence regularly, at least once a year."

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