CHILDREN check out the Neo Explore, the “netbook” launched by Neo Manufacturing and Services Inc. and Intel Technology Philippines Inc. targeted at students and first-time laptop buyers. Those behind it tout it as a joint effort to “break the barriers of affordability and availability.” --ROY DOMINGO

THE government’s ability to come up with credible statistics remains unreliable due to the lack of funding and autonomy, according to a former National Economic and Development Authority (Neda) official.

University of the Philippines (UP) economist and former Neda director general Felipe Medalla said that while the government has announced that its gross domestic product (GDP) in 2007 was a 31-year high at 7.3 percent, this is not exactly accurate.

IN a joint effort to “break the barriers of affordability and availability,” local computer maker Neo Manufacturing and Services Inc. and Intel Technology Philippines Inc. launched over the weekend a “netbook” computer that is less than a third of the price of a conventional laptop computer.

ELECTRONICS and semiconductor manufacturers believe—in the face of the Bush administration’s denial that it had arrived—that recession is now a fact in the United States, the world’s largest importer, and that a domino effect all over the world could be expected.

“It’s not just the US. That will pile up,” said Ernie Santiago, president of the Semiconductor and Electronics Industries of the Philippines Inc. (Seipi). “The US recession is happening now and we are starting to feel its effects globally.”

HONG KONG—President Arroyo Sunday night launched in this former British colony new financial instruments designed to help ease the concerns of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) over the shrinking peso equivalent of their dollar remittances.

The President led launching ceremonies at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in the presence of members of the Filipino community, shortly after arriving for a three-day working visit which she said is partly “dedicated” to meeting with the OFW contingent in Hong Kong to assure them of government efforts to help them cope with the stronger peso.

HONG KONG—President Arroyo is here on a three-day working visit where she hopes to woo more investors to better cushion the country against the perils of a decelerating global economy.

The President said in a statement on arrival Sunday that her trip was to primarily address about 1,500 regional investors and fund managers at the 11th Credit Suisse Asian Investment Conference (AIC). “My undertaking underscores the interest the outside world has in the growing stability and economic fortunes of the Philippines.”

IT’S that time of the year when all accountants and auditors are working hard to compute and arrange the payments and file their respective company’s taxes, hopefully the correct and proper way.

THE whole world—even the United States, a rice exporter but which also imports the grain—is groaning at the doubling of rice prices in the world market from just two or three months ago, and here, in the Philippines, the usual suspects have magically “disappeared” the government rice sold at subsidized prices to the needy. So what else is new?

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CECILIA CHANG, sales and marketing director of Frost & Sullivan, hands over to Clark International Airport Corp. president Victor Jose I. Luciano the Airport of the Year award (for airports under 15 million passengers category) for the Diosdado Macapagal International Airport during the 2008 Asia-Pacific Aerospace and Defense Awards held in Singapore on March 14. --JACOB CUNANAN