The Professor of Nanyang

Pinay promoted to full professor in prestigious Asian university

GMA News

September 28, 2018 

Dr. Mely Caballero-Anthony has recently been promoted to full professor status in one of the best universities in Asia, earning her accolades from the Philippine Embassy in Singapore.

Ambassador Joseph Del Mar Yap called Anthony a "global Filipina" who made her mark in Singapore, one of the "centers of academic excellence in Asia and in the rest of the world."

"Dr. Caballero-Anthony’s achievement will surely inspire and pave the way for more Filipino professors to achieve the same recognition,” Yap said.

Anthony's promotion to full professor at the Nanyang Technological University (NTU) was also cited by Education Minister Ong Ye Kung in his speech at the Times Higher Education World Academic Summit 2018.

Kung said Anthony was recognized for her work outside of the university and "for her work in chairing the United Nations Advisory Board on Disarmament matters in 2016, and having served as the Director of External Relations at the ASEAN Secretariat."

Anthony heads NTU’s Center of Non-Traditional Security Studies (NTS) and teaches at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS).

Prior to her work in Singapore, Anthony finished her BA and MA in Political Science in the University of the Philippines and her PhD in Political Science at the University of Hong Kong.

NTU ranked 7th in Asia in the Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2019. —Rie Takumi/KBK, GMA News

The new Hong Kong

Manila rising as the ‘new Hong Kong’ 

Othel V. Campos
Manila Standard
September 27, 2017 

Manila is rapidly rising as a megacity powered by a growing pool of high-value talent, real estate expansion and a robust consumption-driven economy, property advisor Santos Knight Frank said Wednesday.

“Manila today is the Hong Kong and Singapore of 30 years ago. The level of development in the metropolis over the last decade has been unprecedented and reflects on the accelerated expansion of the property market. Manila has since become an important hub for industries such as IT-BPO [information technology-business process outsourcing] with huge opportunities of growth for other sectors,” said Santos Knight Frank chairman and chief executive Rick Santos.

He said with a population of more than 25 million people, the Greater Manila Area now had more people than Hong Kong and Singapore combined.

Its demographic is a high-value asset in industries such as IT-BPO, where Metro Manila ranks as fourth in the world based on the 2017 Tholons Services Globalization (Outsourcing) Index. 

Santos Knight Frank chairman Rick Santos discusses the property consulting company’s latest findings on the future trends in real estate in the global cities around the world during a news briefing and launching of Santos Knight Frank’s Global Cities Report 2018 at Makati Shangri-la Hotel. Lino Santos

A fast-growing metropolis, Metro Manila’s property market remains robust vis-à-vis several Asian cities. Prime office rents grew between 5 percent and 6 percent annually from 2011.

Prime office rents in Metro Manila increased 3.4 percent year-on-year in the second quarter, outperforming Tokyo at 3.2 percent; Taipei, 2.8 percent; Beijing, -1.9 percent; Shanghai, -2 percent; Singapore, -5.1 percent; and Jakarta, -8.3 percent.

Meanwhile, Metro Manila had one of the lowest vacancy rates at 3.4 percent across Asia Pacific in the second quarter.

“On a regional basis, the performance and fundamentals of the Manila office market look solid. While some of the other Southeast Asian markets are seeing demand remain sluggish and the major Chinese cities are seeing huge amounts of new supply, the Manila market has one of the tightest vacancy rates in the region and looks set for a strong 2018,” said Knight Frank Asia Pacific head of research Nicholas Holt.

The consulting firm said with a growing number of companies venturing onto the global stage, Metro Manila continued to see diversified demand, not only in the office market, but also in the residential sector, where investors from Southeast Asia, China and the Middle East were putting more capital into the Philippines.

“Over the next four years, Manila will see more than 3 million sqm of new office space added to the market. About 2 million sqm of residential space and half a million sqm more for retail will come online by 2019,” Santos said.

The government lined up 64 major infrastructure projects in the Philippines, several of which are underway in Metro Manila such as the NLEx-SLEx Connector Road, Naian Expressway Phase 2 and NLEx Harbor Link.

To decongest the metropolis and encourage development in the outskirts, important mass transport projects such as Mega Manila Subway, Manila-Clark Railway and expansion of the Light Rail Train are also in the pipeline.

“With limited supply of land in the city core, new districts have emerged in the outskirts of Metro Manila. The next wave of expansion is happening in emerging areas such as Alabang, Nuvali, Bulacan and Clark. It is crucial that infrastructure is in place to provide efficient connectivity between various parts of this growing city,” Santos said.

PH to be upper miidle income economy

Philippines set to become upper middle-income economy by 2019 


Julito G. Rada
Manila Standard
18 September 2018



The sustained economic growth will enable the Philippines to join the ranks of upper-middle-income economies by 2019, the government’s economic managers said Tuesday.

The economic team said strong macroeconomic fundamentals coupled with massive infrastructure spending by the Duterte administration would keep the economy robust in the face of domestic and external headwinds that threaten to stifle growth.

“The Philippine economy is strong and the growth momentum can be sustained by policy and fiscal reforms implemented by the government,” Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III said during the Philippine Economic Briefing held at the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas.

“We expect the infrastructure program to hit a stride in the coming months,” Dominguez said.

National Economic and Development Authority director-general Ernesto Pernia said an upward growth trajectory remained possible because the economy was more broad-based now, driven not just by consumption but also investments.

Pernia said the country could become an upper middle-income economy by 2019, adding the government was “more than on track” to meet this target.

“Government spending continues to boost economic activity,” Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno said.

“Our expansionary fiscal policy is prudent, sustainable, and supportive of development objectives,” he said.

Diokno said with a robust growth target of 7 percent to 8 percent in the next five years, the Philippine economy would be the fastest growing among the top five Asean economies.   He said this would be supported by strong fiscal performance. 

“The revenue effort is projected to increase from 15.7 percent in 2017 to as high as 17.6 percent in 2022,” he said. 

“In nominal terms, revenue collection will rise from close to P2.5 trillion in 2017 to as much as P4.6 trillion in 2022,” Diokno said.

Government spending is expected to surge from just over P2.8 trillion in 2017 to as high as P5.4 trillion in 2022. Diokno said with a strategy to keep the deficit at 3 percent of GDP in 2018 and eventually to 3.2 percent in 2019, the strong momentum in infrastructure spending was poised to be sustained.

Dominguez said the implementation of the first package of the Comprehensive Tax Reform Program would ensure good revenue flows for the government.  The Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion law took effect in January, which cut personal income taxes but raised the excise tax on tobacco, fuel, alcohol, automobile and sweetened beverages.

“The government also is not suffering from deficits and we have a very good credit rating,” Dominguez said. The Philippines currently enjoys investment grade ratings from global debt watchers Moody’s Investors Service, Fitch Ratings and S&P Global Ratings.

Dominguez also cited the country’s low indebtedness, high gross international reserves, and high domestic liquidity.

Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Deputy Governor Diwa Guinigundo said the economy experienced 78 quarters of uninterrupted growth, although the challenge was how to sustain this momentum.

The economy grew by 6.3 percent in the first half, lower than the expected 7 percent to 8 percent targeted by the country’s economic managers at the start of the year.