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Hospital, not
mall. A quartet
plays in the lobby of Bangkok’s Samitivej Hospital
Sukhumvit, which has a garden and rooms with balconies. It
is one of several facilities in the Thai capital catering
to the growing medical-tourism business. The Philippines
is also anchoring its projected robust growth in the
travel industry on a boom in medical tourism.
--THE WASHINGTON POST |
| HEADLINES |
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Base
pay drives war for workers |
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NUMBERS
don’t lie. Despite Watson Wyatt executives’ assertions that
base pay is no longer an absolute criterion, their own
survey of 400 companies worldwide shows many employers can’t
afford to keep talents and often just watch their best and
brightest walk off to greener pastures. |
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RP
medical hardware still trails Thailand |
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SINGAPORE—The Philippines needs to invest more in technology
and not just rely on its world-renowned surgeons and
relatively cheaper hospital cost if the country hopes to
attract medical tourists on the level of Thailand, according
to Philip Cardamone, Asia-Pacific managing director of
German firm BrainLab AG. |
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Arroyo vows to ‘complete’ RP initiatives in Singapore Summit |
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SINGAPORE
(via PLDT)—President Arroyo on Sunday night arrived in this
city-state for the 13th Leaders’ Summit of the Association
of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), where she will seek to
“complete” the initiatives on human-rights protection
promotion, environmental protection and energy independence
that the Philippines pursued in the last summit. |
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‘Asean won’t be a supranational body’ |
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SINGAPORE
(via PLDT)—The adoption of an Asean Charter would not turn
the regional grouping into a supranational association that
would impinge on the sovereignty of its individual
member-states, a ranking Philippine foreign affairs official
said on Saturday. |
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More
senators want PNOC-EDC auction halted |
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THE
administration’s almost fire-sale efforts to privatize state
assets has worried senators that the Executive branch has
not fully assessed the national-security implications of
this practice to raise funds. |
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DOE
grills oil firms; Senate hearing set on oil-price hikes |
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THE
Department of Energy (DOE) is seeking an explanation from
local oil companies on the adjustments made in the prices of
petroleum products and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) to
ensure these are reasonable. |
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Funding stymies microenterprises’ growth
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THE
financing requirement of microfinance borrowers who graduate
and move on to become small- and medium-scale entrepreneurs
(SMEs) is huge and basically unmet, requiring funding of up
to P180 billion, the private-investment arm of the World
Bank said on Friday. |
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Imported rice prices seen to remain high |
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THE prices
of imported rice varieties are expected to remain high next
year because ending stocks are expected to be the smallest
in 25 years, according to the United States Department of
Agriculture (USDA). |
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Unreported imports drain government? |
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THE
government could have lost billions of dollars from the
failure of the Bureau of Customs to tax goods imported into
the country, but not properly tracked by authorities, as
gleaned from disparities between official Philippine
government reports and those of the International Monetary
Fund (IMF). A report by the IMF indicates the value of this
untracked importations at an aggregate amount of $68.04
billion from 2002-2006. |
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MORE STORIES ... |
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Comfort sight.
There’s comfort
food for those needing respite from stress or frustration—so
why not a “comfort sight” like the giant Christmas tree that
has delighted thousands of people for decades? The tree was
lit last weekend, giving those visiting the Araneta Coliseum
and Gateway mall area in Quezon City some pause from a weary
world. --ROMY FLORANTE |
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