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THE
Development Bank of the Philippines is ready to offer a
special hedge fund for overseas Filipino workers (OFWs)
that would protect their dollar remittances from a
strengthening peso over a specified period of time,
Labor Secretary Arturo Brion said Thursday.
Brion
said in an interview with Palace reporters after a
televised government forum in Malacañang that he and DBP
chairman Patricia Sto. Tomas will formally launch the
special facility for OFWs in
Hong Kong around the third week of January.
Asked
when OFWs can avail themselves of the hedge fund, Brion
said, “As far as I know, it’s now ready....This is a
facility that is already available.”
Under
the scheme, OFWs would remit their dollar earnings to
the DBP under a guaranteed fixed peso-dollar exchange
rate over a specific period.
Brion
declined to peg the amount of the special facility, but
said that it would be “as big as the DBP can afford.”
Brion
also expressed hope that other banks would follow suit.
“I would hope that in due time, other banks would catch
on and offer similar measures, if not the same
measures. Remember, in the banking industry, there is
still competition,” he said.
Brion
said that he has received information that the Land Bank
of the Philippines is discussing the special facility,
but has not formally expressed interest in offering it.
The
forward cover is similar to the special hedging facility
being offered by the DBP to exporters affected by the
strong peso.
In his
report in “The Cabinet Speaks,” a televised government
forum on current issues, Brion said that the country’s
employment statistics for 2007 are “very good,” as
unemployment dropped to 6.3 percent in October 2007,
from 7.3 percent in October 2006, or an additional
400,000 employed during that period.
“The
economy is moving forward, peso strengthening, and we
expect jobs to increase locally and overseas,” he said.
He said
that occupations that are expected to be in demand are
in construction such as architects, engineers, welders,
heavy equipment operators, riggers and pipe fitters;
maritime-related such as seafarers, marine officers; in
the health, wellness and medical field; in tourism; in
cyber services; mining; and in agribusiness.
Brion
added that the country set a “record breaking year” in
2007 in terms of industrial peace as there were only six
strikes out of 326 notices of strike filed with the
labor department, half of the number in 2006 and the
lowest since 1986.
“We are
down to six so our investors are very happy,” he said.
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