Have you thought of working or migrating abroad ? Have you tried applying for work, visit, or migration, but got stuck?

Then this is one information session you shouldn’t miss.

Licensed New Zealand Immigration Adviser Carlo Santos and the Former Manager of the New Zealand Embassy’s Immigration Section, Rainier Sales, are set to deliver a FREE information seminar this Saturday, 3 December 2011, from 9:00 am to 12 noon at the Metropolis Suites Hotel, J.P. Cabaguio Avenue, Davao City.

The seminar, entitled “Work, Study, and Migrate to New Zealand”, is the most comprehensive seminar series on New Zealand to ever reach Davao’s shores.

The seminar discusses options for everyone, for instance:

Nurses from all disciplines, including Nursing Students and Fresh Graduates, will discover the different pathways enabling them to find work in or apply for migration to New Zealand.

If you are a Nursing Clinical Instructor 44 years old and under, come to the seminar and find out how you can qualify for the migration stream with a 99.9% chance of selection.

Business Management graduates, Tourism graduates, Marketing Experts and graduates of any Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree can either find work or apply for immigration to New Zealand. Creative professionals such as graphic designers, web designers and animators also have tremendous potential for lucrative careers in New Zealand.

Jobs in the skills shortage list include Teachers, University Professors, Healthcare Professionals, IT Experts, Hotel and Restaurant Managers, and Chefs.

Find out how you can IMMEDIATELY bring your family with you to New Zealand and how, with the help of Uniwide Technical Services and Focus NZ, you can use existing policies to enable you to settle with your family in New Zealand within one year.

Made possible by the synergistic partnership of Uniwide Technical Services, Inc. (a POEA-licensed agency) and Focus New Zealand, the seminar is a rare opportunity to come face-to-face with experts and ask them questions about your career opportunities in New Zealand.

Furthermore, you can be assured that, as an agency of good standing with the POEA and with the New Zealand Embassy, Uniwide Technical Services will not sign on applicants unless your application has a very good chance of success.

The seminar is open to the public. Three easy ways to register:

• Text Smart mobile (920)908-6978 with your name and indicate that you want to be registered for the seminar;
• Email your résumé to events[at]uniwide.com.ph;
• Look for UTSI Makati on Facebook and send us a message to confirm your attendance.

You see, tenants have been offered a rather hard-to-resist deal: those that open and begin operations on 12 May 2011 get to pay only 50% of their rent for all of 6 months. By the looks of it, I think some shops won’t make it to the deadline. And the mall itself doesn’t look to be quite finished yet, with only a couple of days to go. Still, as what Dr. Neil Oropeza said when I saw him at Abreeza yesterday, a deadline has to be imposed to get people to do their darnedest best to finish. Doc Neil is opening an OroDerm clinic there, and he is confident he’ll be opening his doors to the public this Thursday.

Here are some pictures of the soon-to-open mall, taken last night. I tried to take photos of the establishments rushing to meet the deadline, but I couldn’t get them all. I was hoping to bump into my cousins, Raymond & Christian de la Paz, who’re going to open Tsuru Japanese Restaurant and Hanoi Vietnamese Cuisine at the ground floor. But I felt like I was getting in the way already, so I left after two rounds of the mall.

Will Abreeza be ready to do the soft launch this Thursday? By the looks of it, maybe not. But judging by the hive of activity at the premises, the purpose with which everyone moved, it seems they just might make a photo finish of it!

Kudos to the successful joint venture between Ayala Land and Damosa Land! Dabawenyos will certainly be proud of Abreeza and its beautiful space.

Dabawenyo.biz is for Davao companies and individuals engaged in business. It’s divided into two main sections: the business directory, and the classified ads section. In the first, companies are invited to post a business listing that can contain their logo, address & contact information, description, even their website address. It’s one great way for businesses to get themselves more searchable on the Web.

The classified ads section is for anyone in the Davao Region to post for-sale items, vehicles or equipment for rent, real estate for lease, and services for hire.

Dabawenyo.biz is not a forum. It’s a straightforward directory and listing service for businesses, and it’s very user-friendly. And free! All you need to do is to create a user account and you’re good to go. Click here to create your account now!

Since it’s a very new site, there’s going to be room for improvement. I welcome suggestions to help improve the site, so please feel free to contact me.

Apart from the free online service provided by Dabawenyo.biz, there are advertising opportunities as well. For businesses that would like to have their products and/or services promoted more widely, I accept ad placements on my network of sites. If you’re interested, do drop me a line soon.

This is from Komikasi Enterprise, the publisher of Espresso:

What is Espresso?

Espresso is a weekly comics magazine that features one-shot comic stories, as well as an ongoing comic series, by Filipino Comic Creators. Espresso will be distributed for FREE at the stations of the Light Rail Transit (LRT) Lines 1 and 2.

Our Vision

We love comics. And because of that, our vision is to see the Filipino Comics Creator up there among the popular, best-selling, beloved and respected.

Our Mission

We have, therefore, taken it upon ourselves to provide a venue for new and old Filipino artists to showcase their works. Our mission is to help promote the works of Filipino Comic Creators throughout the country by printing quality comic features from different creators from all over the country, and distributing these comics for FREE!

Espresso will be launched this Saturday, 12 June 2010. It will be held at Mag:net Katipunan; cocktails will be served from 6:00pm.

How I wish such a creative publication would be available in Davao City as well…. Well, maybe once Espresso is already successful in Metro Manila, Komikasi might consider bringing it to the south.

Kudos to my cousin Ria! I hope the magazine takes off with a blast!

The planned directory will be organized by type of business, and will display the following information per listing: name of establishment, address, telephone & fax numbers, website URL (if available), a brief description, and even a company logo. There will be no charge for getting your business listed on AngDabawenyo.com, but I will reserve the right to refuse submissions as I see fit.

Right now, I have a Choice Spots section here. Once I get enough submissions, I will recreate that section into the new directory. I’m thinking of putting in place a feature that will allow my blog readers to rate the establishments. If you have other ideas, or if you’d like to suggest a new category of business establishments, please use the Contact Form. I’d really appreciate your feedback.

Let’s get on with it! Submit your business now!

These shoes were donated recently to the Pamulaan Center for Indigenous Peoples’ Education in Mintal, Davao City. In simple rites but in a festive setting, adidas executives, led by Country Manager Nolet Puno, turned over the shoes to the students of Pamulaan. All who study at Pamulaan are children of indigenous peoples from all over the country.

adidas assets graced the event, among them Purefoods cagers, Enrico Villanueva and Peter Jun Simon, who hails from Davao City.

Pamulaan, the first of its kind in Asia, is established in the Mintal campus of the University of South Eastern Philippines, which is about half an hour’s drive from downtown Davao City. At present, there are about 100 students taking up courses in education, agriculture and anthropology. At the turnover ceremony, students from various cultural minorities honored their guests with traditional dances: Manobo, Matigsalog, Mangyan, Ifugao, Teburay, and others.

The students, as well as everyone else in attendance, were treated to the antics of VJ Drei of MYX and the presence of TV idol Rayver Cruz, both of whom are also adidas assets. I’m sure that for both parties — the Pamulaan family and the adidas entourage — it was a first-of-a-kind encounter.

adidas chose Pamulaan as sole beneficiary of their corporate social responsibility project, according to Jillian Panganiban of adidas Philippines, because of the center’s uniqueness and worthy objectives. Pamulaan (from the Matigsalog word for ‘seedbed’) is currently home to about 31 different indigenous peoples groups from all over the archipelago.

In his acceptance speech, Pamulaan founder Benjamin Abadiano stressed that this generous donation from adidas will benefit thousands of cultural minority students, a lot of whom walk to school across great distances. Pamulaan is based in Davao City, but extends its helping hands to indigenous peoples all over the country.

Bloggers @ the adidas-Pamulaan event

In behalf of my fellow bloggers, I’d like to extend sincere greetings of congratulations to adidas Philippines for the very charitable contribution it has made to our indigenous peoples.

Here are photos of the event, courtesy of Chattee Lara.

The much-awaited Ayala Land, Inc. (ALI) and Anflocor project took a significant stride with a groundbreaking ceremony held on site last 23 September 2008 for their joint venture dubbed as Abreeza.

The ceremony was attended by ALI & Anflocor executives and guests, who witnessed Anflocor Chairman of the Board Antonio O. Floirendo Sr., Ayala Corp. Chairman of the Board Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala II, Ayala Land Chairman of the Board Fernando Zobel de Ayala, Ayala Land President Jaime I. Ayala, Ayala Malls and Ayala Businesscapes Group Head Ma. Victoria E. Añonuevo, Head of Ayala Land Vis-Min Emilio J. Tumbocon, Anflocor Vice Chairman Antonio R. Floirendo Jr., Anflocor President Alexander Valoria, Anflocor Senior Vice President Ricardo R. Floirendo, Anflocor Directors Ma. Cristina R. Brias and Vicente R. Floirendo, with Davao City Administrator Wendell Avisado, break the ground at the Abreeza site along J. P. Laurel Avenue to formally signal the start of building work for the joint venture.

Abreeza is the first major entry project of Ayala Land, Inc. in Davao City. When completed, Abreeza is envisioned to be an integrated mixed-used development that will innovate the city’s urban landscape. It will include a three-storey shopping mall, two Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) buildings and, in the future, a hotel and residential and commercial lots. The first BPO building will be completed in the fourth quarter of 2009 while the first phase of the mall will open in the fourth quarter of 2010.

Abreeza is not the Ayalas’ first development in Davao City, however. We mustn’t forget that the venerable Insular Hotel (now owned and operated by the Waterfront chain) was built by the Ayala family. The high-end Insular villages were also theirs, as well as the Insular Life and BPI buildings.

During the press conference on the same day, this time held at the Pearl Farm Marina, ALI President Jim Ayala, Anflocor Senior VP Ricky Floirendo and the other executives of these two corporations related how Abreeza will become a business-cum-leisure center that Dabawenyos will be proud of. If we are to base our expectations on Makati’s Greenbelt, Abreeza is certainly something to look forward to — in two short years!

The representatives who were at the presscon were the decision-makers of the joint venture, and so the media — as well as the bloggers — were able to glean juicier details than what was printed on the press releases. For example, Jim Ayala revealed that the total project cost up to 2011 will be Php 4 to 5 billion (but the question regarding ROI was predictably left unanswered).

Also, and this is something that I’m sure we will all appreciate, Abreeza will reportedly have around 20% of the 10-hectare property dedicated to open spaces. Think of those beautiful gardens and parks that dot the five Greenbelts in Makati.

Davao City has long been identified as a favorable investment destination for BPO companies, as well as a viable source of skilled manpower. Thus, Abreeza’s first finished product will be the 10,000-sqm building reserved for BPO and IT firms. The executives said that there have already been inquiries from such operators who have existing deployments in other ALI properties.

Prompted by questions from the press and from yours truly, the executives of ALI and Anflocor also talked about their dealings with the city government. Jim Ayala, who reiterated his company’s confidence in the city’s peace & order stability, also discussed plans to address the flooding situation along J. P. Laurel Avenue, as well as other plans to ensure the success of Abreeza’s development.

The entry of Ayala Land, in partnership with Anflocor, is a gleaming beacon of investor confidence in Davao City. Progress is inexorably in our midst.

The name Abreeza was coined from "breeze" and the Italian word for embrace, "abbraccio".

In Davao, there is a growing number of businessmen who are getting on the digital bandwagon. When before it was near to impossible to do business with foreign clients and agents, today, practically the whole world is an open market.

This way of doing business, however, is a whole new practice. While the core principles might be the same, the paradigm is now totally different. One way of putting it is this: the ultimate objective is still to make a profit; but the way of going about it is completely new.

To give an example, consider credit card merchant accounts or merchant bankcards. Traditionally, these were services provided solely by banks or brick-and-mortar financial institutions. But in this day and age, we’ve gone beyond this limitation.

To a certain extent, business activity isn’t even limited by geographical boundaries anymore. A local company here can apply for an offshore credit card merchant account with any of the globally-aligned services that can be found online.

There’s no reason for Davao-based companies to miss out on this wave of opportunities. All it takes, really, is the willpower to go online and discover the potentials and realize them.

This flagship research project by the AIM, established in 1999, is conducted every two years, and has since become a benchmark of Philippine cities’ overall economic standing. To quote the AIM:

…the Program envisions to promote national competitiveness by encouraging healthy competition among highly urbanized and emerging cities, emphasizing the crucial roles of small and medium enterprises as the backbone of local development. By gathering and compiling strategic data and providing focused analyses of the results, the PCCRP also seeks to cultivate competitive industries, promote healthy communities and maximize the economic potentials of the cities

This should be another reason for Dabawenyos to be proud of their beloved city. And it should be one more indicator of just how viable Davao is as an investment destination.

I have recently been to Lapu-Lapu, Makati and Quezon City, and the progress in those cities is clearly evident. Still, Davao City tops them all in the 2007 survey. The PCCRP includes the following criteria in its study: dynamism of local economy, cost of doing business, infrastructure, human resources and training, responsiveness of LGU to business needs and quality of life.

Dynamism of local economy / Cost of doing business / Infrastructure. There certainly is much dynamism in Davao’s local economy, as evidenced by an ongoing construction boom, and the entry of new industry players such as call centers and other BPO operators.

Human resources and training. Davao is a favorite hunting ground among headhunters, and the hiring rate of Dabawenyos is reportedly high. Call centers (e.g., Concentrix and People Support) view their Davao staff as highly trainable.

Responsiveness of LGU to business needs. Davao’s local government is the first to establish a "911" emergency response service, which is being supported by the Davao Light and Power Company. Aside from this, the LGU maintains very good working relationships with private enterprises and organizations.

Quality of life. Just read this blog and my readers’ comments… Need I say more? :)

Thank you to Councilor Pete Laviña for alerting us to this piece of news! It’s something all Dabawenyo bloggers should proudly post about!

The city government actually has a professionally-created map of the entire city, but they won’t release any part of it to the public. They say it’s for security reasons. One official actually told me, it’s to avoid having evil elements of society use the information. OK, that’s fine, but what about the other side of the coin?

What about businessmen who need, for example, to put GPS vehicle tracking in place? While GPS as a service is already available to us, the technology won’t be 100% deployable without the necessary geographical data.

Vehicle tracking is just one emerging requirement for companies with a fleet of cars and trucks and what have you. The technology behind GPS fleet tracking, even personnel tracking, is already possible at affordable rates — and it can even be developed locally. In fact, we already have a couple of local software development companies that are involved in such projects.

If only our local government would have a more forward-thinking attitude towards technology, they would realize that it is a tool that can greatly help in the city’s development in all levels.