15 MARCH 2019

MOST
INNOVATIVE
BROADSHEET
2018
44TH
PHILIPPINES
BUSINESS
EXPO
VENEZUELA
BLACKOUT
TRIGGERS
LOOTING
P20
THAI BAGS
SOUTHWOODS
CROWN
P18
LOOKING
AT LONG
TERM
P15
Jun Vallecera, Editor
Friday, 15 March 2019
Daily Tribune
BUSINESS
9
Car sales lag 8% over 2 months
A MAN walks through a used car sales yard in Beijing, China’s economy grew at its slowest pace in almost three decades losing more steam in the last
quarter as it battles a massive debt pile and a US trade war, official data showed.
AFP
Guarding vs
systemic risks
The interagency Financial Stability
Coordination Council (FSCC) on Thursday
said it will continue to steer the financial
system by continuing to be the venue for
financial market authorities to identify,
monitor, manage and mitigate the buildup of
systemic risks in the financial system.
The new Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas
(BSP) Governor Benjamin Diokno, who is
also the new chairman of the FSCC, said he
will continue to build on the progress made
by the council.
At its quarterly meeting, Diokno, being
the new council chief, led the assessment
on the impact of the slowing global growth
in the Philippines, as well as the changing
economic landscape in both the US and
China.
“Global markets were turbulent when we
closed 2018 and there are new developments
at the start of 2019 that could affect financial
markets,” Diokno said.
“We need to consider the possible
scenarios and steer our financial system
so that we can effectively manage these
possibilities and continue with our economic
growth agenda,” he added. JLao
For employers, the challenge is to be able to transform the
business process, redefine the job towards higher value and
redeploy qualified workers in order for them to continue
working with dignity and self-respect
The increasing sophistication and
commercial application of advances in
technology, principally in automation
and artificial intelligence, will have far
reaching consequences on the nature
of work and the workplace across many
sectors. The debate focuses on the
changes they will bring and the extent
of their impact, mainly in terms of
workforce dislocations and the process
of transitioning to new jobs, not only to
workers but to society as well.
I remember during my early working
days, there were rows upon rows of
accounting clerks tabulating and posting
manually various company transactions.
The ledgers and accounting sheets were
so cumbersome to maintain. Similarly,
there were dozens in the secretarial
staff typing away letters, memos and
what have you. Today, with almost each
worker having laptops and printers,
Mainstreaming women‘s insurance
Insular Life, along with the International
Finance Corp. (IFC), eyes greater financial
inclusion by capturing a bigger share of the
insured population.
With the help of IFC, the private investment
arm of the World Bank Group, the insurer
launched its newest program expected to
impact the lives of one million Filipino
women.
Dubbed as the InLife Sheroes, the program
provides life-long risk mitigation solutions for
women while educating them on financial
management, health and well-being.
Insular Life executive chairman Nina
Aguas said the program is a reflection of their
belief that women are an important market
that remains largely untapped at the moment.
We believe the women sector is
important not just as a market
segment. There are clear needs
of women that are not fully
addressed.
“This is such an important initiative for
us not just at Insular but also, I think, in
many ways for the insurance industry. This
is beyond our company because it will touch
the communities and the cities and ultimately
the country,” Aguas told reporters.
“We believe the women sector is important
not just as a market segment. There are clear
needs of women that are not fully addressed.
So, we are focusing our initiatives on women
with the help of the IFC,” she said.
The World Bank unit helps the insurer
address the specific needs of Filipino
women by conducting a study on
the subject.
According to the insurer, the
program will reach out to the
untapped segment of women in
the country, starting with women
entrepreneurs who need life and
health protection as well as financial
solutions to expand their business.
The IFC study revealed a massive
market opportunity for the insurance
industry reaching an estimated $1.7
trillion by 2030 globally. Half of this
opportunity, the study said, is in the
Philippines.
Henriette Kolb, manager of IFC’s
Gender Secretariat, said the latest
study requires a clear need for a
women inclusive insurance program
that will also promote further
economic growth. Joshua Lao
Changing nature of work
work in these areas has been reduced
drastically. There is greater efficiency
and accuracy in reporting and overall
productivity has increased immensely.
The workplace, the organization and
the processes have changed. And the
workers? They moved on to other things.
With the increase in computing power
and rapid technological innovations and
commercial applications, a greater
number of jobs will be eliminated.
Some jobs are prone to automation,
particularly those that are manual,
routine and repetitive. Low-skilled
jobs in manufacturing, among other
things, are particularly vulnerable.
Robots in the automotive industry
will eliminate jobs such as welding
or painting. Some jobs, however, are
not susceptive to automation, not yet
anyway. These are in the creative fields
like arts, highly technical fields, nonroutine
work, and those
requiring interpersonal
and social interactions
such as healthcare aides.
Others have only
specific segments or tasks
that can be automated
to compliment the work
of humans, thus humans
will work alongside
digital-technology-driven
machines. With the
proliferation of automated
diagnostic machines in
the medical profession,
the human touch is still
EMPLOYER’S
CORNER
Ed Lacson
needed in explaining to the patient his
illness and the required treatments.
The same is true for financial advisors
interacting with clients on various
investment options.
What is interesting to note is the
creation of new and transformation of
existing jobs because of automation,
which when handled well, could reduce
widespread displacement or dislocation
of workers. In the banking industry, ATM
machines do most of a teller’s job of
receiving money. However, some banks
We are encouraged by the good sales performance of
AVID for the month which signals stronger consumer
confidence as well as preference for top-notch
products
By AJ Bajo
The Association of Vehicle
and Distributors Inc., (AVID) on
Thursday reported 14,499 units sold
during the first two months of the
year, 8 percent lower compared to
figures in 2018.
Still, annual car sales grew
by 12 percent to 7,876 units sold
in February, owing to increased
consumer spending and fresh
products in store.
“We are encouraged by the
good sales performance of AVID for
the month which signals stronger
consumer confidence as well as
preference for top-notch products,”
AVID president Ma. Fe Perez-Agudo
said.
“While we are still in the early
part of the year, we have gotten
over the hump and expect a
robust recovery for the automotive
industry.”
Demand for passenger
cars dropped a notch in February
this year compared to a year ago,
to 2,843 units from 2,881.
For the first two months, car
sales for the segment dropped by
a cumulative 15 percent to 5,140
units, AVID said.
Hyundai remained the best-selling
brand, accounting for 3,490 units
of the total units sold, or about 68
percent.
The light commercial vehicle
(LCV) segment made up 62 percent
of the sales mix. Sales for the
segment went up by 22 percent to
4,905 units sold compared to 4,028
units sold in February 2018.
have transformed their
tellers into a “universal
processor” that attends
to all the financial needs
of a customer, instead
of just doing the limited
tasks of deposit taking
and withdrawal. The job
has evolved to providing
higher value services
to customers which,
eventually, leads to higher
pay.
Such changeover,
however, requires an
appropriate assessment
There is greater efficiency and
accuracy in reporting and overall
productivity has increased
immensely.
of training needs to reskill workers
and mentoring throughout the period
of adaptation to the new job. For the
workers to stay relevant, they need to
unlearn their previous skill set, start
acquiring new skills and adapt fast to
the new job.
Year to date, the LCV segment
saw a slight decline with 9,146 units
sold this year from 9,434 units the
prior year.
Ford led the segment with 3,596
units sold.
Sales in the commercial vehicle
(CV) segment grew by 19 percent
to 128 units sold in February, while
sales were unchanged for the first
two months this year compared to
2018, at 213 units.
Hyundai topped the segment
with 154 units sold, AVID said, while
JAC Automobile Int’l Philippines
Inc. followed with 59 units.
Initial indications point
to the fact that the
Philippine economy is
poised for improved
performance in 2019. We
aim to ride this wave for
growth.
“We are seeing an upturn in all
major segments which augurs well
for AVID in the coming months,”
Perez-Agudo said.
“Initial indications point to the
fact that the Philippine economy is
poised for improved performance
in 2019. We aim to ride this wave
for growth.”
AVID is banking on the
expectation the Bangko Sentral ng
Pilipinas will ease monetary policy
rates in light of improving inflation,
which fell 3.8 percent in February.
The attractive financing and
lower inflation bode well for auto
demand, AVID said, which is poised
to stage a recovery.
A TECHNICIAN works on the Nomex production line of a subsidiary of China Energy
in Lingwu, the Ningxia Hui autonomous region.
XINHUA
Those unable to make the transition
become social liabilities that government
and companies need to look at from a
social security issue to reduce the
human costs of automation. On a wider
context, since the vulnerable jobs are
primarily low-skilled jobs, the inability
to acquire new skills and thus gainful
employment can exacerbate income
disparity.
On this note, government can facilitate
the reskilling process by supporting
skills development institutions, develop
relevant curriculum, and make tuition
affordable. Companies, on the other
hand, can invest and cultivate within
their system a continuous learning
culture and more cross-functional
exposures for their workers to ease
the transition process. Workers in turn
need to be flexible and adaptable. For
employers, the challenge is to be able to
transform the business process, redefine
the job towards higher value and
redeploy qualified workers in order for
them to continue working with dignity
and self-respect.
This article is the last in a three-part
series on the “Changing Nature of Work.”
MEGALOTTO 6/45 FRIDAY, 15 MARCH 2019 JACKPOT PRIZE H
PCSO
www.pcso.gov.ph
P41,000,000.00
* Jackpot amount may change depending on actual sales until 8:30 PM of March 15, 2019
* Jackpot amount may change depending on actual sales until 8:30 PM of March 15, 2019
PLAY & WIN NA!
TONIGHT NA!