B 2


RUSSELS: Europe’s finance ministers meet in Brussels on Monday with Ireland’s bailout endangered by domestic politics and the response mechanism to the wider eurozone debt crisis surrounded by doubts.


When eurozone ministers gather


Monday, followed by their full Eu- ropean Union partners Tuesday, they will seek to move from fire- fighting to securing solid future foundations for the eurozone at the December 16-17 EU summit. “If the 1990s was the decade of constructing the economic and monetary union, and the 2000s the decade of turning it into reality, we are now at the beginning of the dec-


business The Manila Times MONDAY December 6, 2010


Danger and doubt stalk eurozone crisis talks B


for the euro, and thus for European integration” as a whole, he added. The debt crisis has exposed the fundamental flaw of the eurozone as a monetary union without a func- tional fiscal union, and the markets are now forcing euro states to slash spending as they have been unable to police themselves.


ade of its fundamental reform,” the EU’s Economic and Monetary Af- fairs Commissioner Olli Rehn said in a speech to employers Friday. He said the challenge posed by the debt crisis, which has seen mar- kets push up borrowing rates for heavily indebted countries, is of “fi- nally creating a real and functional economic union.”


Such an economic union is re- quired to “create a solid foundation


S.Korean lawmakers call US trade deal ‘humiliating’


SEOUL: A sweeping free trade agree- ment (FTA) with the United States looks set for a rough ride through the South Korean legislature after opposition parties branded it a “hu- miliating and treacherous” deal. Trade negotiators from the two countries finalized the details of the FTA in Washington on Friday after a three-year stalemate on auto tariffs. Under the renegotiated agree- ment, the US will be allowed to keep its 2.5 percent tariff on cars for five years, while South Korea would im- mediately cut its present eight per- cent tariff in half. South Korea will also ease car safety and environmental standards so that each US automaker will be allowed to export 25,000 cars per year—four times the current level— which meet only US safety require- ments, rather than the more strin- gent South Korean ones.


In return, South Korea will be al-


lowed to extend by two years a 25 per- cent tariff on frozen pork imported from the US, Trade Minister Kim Jong- Hoon told reporters Sunday. South Korean imports of the meat from the US were worth about 160 million dollars last year.


Kim said the new agreement is “a


by-product that equally reflected each side’s interests” but admitted a concession was needed in the dis- puted auto tariff to help clear the passage of the deal in Washington. “We took the US concerns into account... considering a certain plat- form was needed to clear political barriers in the US to push ahead with the FTA deal [because of the] difficult situation of the US auto industry,” he said. But opposition party lawmakers in


Seoul were left fuming at what they said was a “humiliating” agreement with too many concessions for Wash- ington and too little in return for Seoul. “We have been hit by the North with cannons and now we’re being hit by the US with the economy,” said Park Jie-Won, floor leader of the Democratic Party, referring to last month’s artillery assault by Pyongyang on a border island, which killed four South Koreans. The new agreement is a “humili- ating and treacherous deal that pre- vents South Korea’s access to the US auto market, which should be a key pillar of the FTA,” the party said in a statement.


AFP


Republic of the Philippines Department of Public Works and Highways


DPWH infra-07 – Standard Advertisement-Revised IRR NEGROS OCCIDENTAL 1ST


Matab-ang, Talisay City, Negros Occidental Tel. No. (034) 4410016 / Fax No. (034) 4951299


Email Add: dpwh_1stnegrosoccidental@yahoo.com INVITATION TO BID


The Department of Public Works and Highways, Negros Occidental 1st


A. Contract ID No. Contract Name


Contract Location Scope of Works


LOI Fee : 10GK0044


: Completion of Paniqui-on Bridge and Approaches : Cadiz City, Negros Occidental


: Concrete paving of bridge approaches; construction of r.c. link- slabs, embankment filling and grouted riprap protection, including excavation, aggregate base and sub-base course, etc.


: P 1,000.00 (One Thousand Pesos)


Cost of Bid Document : P 10,000.00 (Ten Thousand Pesos) Approved Budget for the Contract (ABC) : Php 7,206,425.00


Contract Duration : 100 Calendar Days The BAC will conduct bidding through open competitive bidding procedures in accordance


with R.A. 9184 and its Revised Implementing Rules and Regulations. To bid for this contract, a contractor must submit a Letter of Intent (LOI) and must meet


the following major criteria: (a) prior registration with DPWH, (b) Filipino citizen or 75% Filipino-owned partnership, corporation, cooperative, or joint venture with PCAB license applicable to the type and cost of this contract, (c) completion of a similar contract costing at least 50% of ABC within a period of 10 years, and (d) Net Financial Contracting Capacity at least equal to ABC, or credit line commitment for at least 10% of ABC. The BAC will use non-discretionary pass/fail criteria in the eligibility check and preliminary examination of bids as per Department Order No. 01, series of 2010 dated January 24, 2010 entitled Interim Guidelines in the Procurement Process based on the Revised Implementing Rules and Regulations of Republic Act 9184 which stated particularly Article C.8., that the “POCW shall conduct the eligibility evaluation only on the day of submission/opening of bids and shall inform the BAC procuring entity of the results through e-mail, fax or whatever means necessary.”


Unregistered contractors, however, shall submit their applications for registration to the DPWH-POCW Central Office, 5th


Floor, DPWH Building, Bonifacio Drive, Port Area, Manila before


the deadline for the receipt of LOI. The DPWH-POCW Central Office will only process contractor’s applications for registration, with complete requirements, and issue the Contractor’s Certificate of Registration (CRC). Registration Forms may be downloaded at the DPWH website www.dpwh.gov.ph.


The significant times and deadlines of procurement activities are shown below: BAC Activities


Schedule


1. Receipt of LOI from Prospective Bidders Deadline: December 13, 2010 at 5:00 PM 2. Issuance of Bidding Documents the submission and receipt of bids 3. Pre-bid Conference 4. Receipt of Bids 5. Opening of Bids


Occidental 1st


Period: December 3, 2010 until the deadline for Date and Time: December 10, 2010 at 2:00 pm


Deadline: December 23, 2010 at 8:00 AM Date and Time: December 23, 2010 at 10:00 AM


The BAC will issue hard copies of Bidding Documents (BD’s) at BAC Office, DPWH, Negros District Engineering Office, Matab-ang, Talisay City, Negros Occidental, upon


payment of a non-refundable fee for Bid Documents per project. Bids must accompanied by a bid security, in the amount and acceptable form, as stated in Section 27.2 of the Revised IRR.


Prospective bidders shall submit their duly accomplished forms as specified in the BD’s


in two (2) separate sealed bid envelopes to the BAC Chairman. The first envelope shall contain the technical component of the bid, which shall include the eligibility requirements. The second envelope shall contain the financial component of the bid. Contract will be awarded to the Lowest Calculated Responsive Bid as determined in the bid evaluation and the post- qualification.


The DPWH, Negros Occidental 1st District Engineering Office, Matab-ang, Talisay City, Negros


Occidental reserves the right to accept or reject any or all bid and to annul the bidding process anytime before Contract Award, without incurring liability to the affected bidders. Approved by:


JAIME S.J. JAVELLANA OIC - Assistant District Engineer (BAC – Chairman)


Noted: LEA N. DELFINADO, CES E District Engineer


Noted : MT – Dec. 6, 2010


RODOLFO M. TORRALBA, JR., CEO VI District Engineer


MT – Dec. 6, 2010 District Engineering


Office, through its Bids and Awards Committee (BAC), invites contractors to apply to bid for the following contract(s):


DISTRICT ENGINEERING OFFICE 1. a. Contract ID :


b.Name of Project : c.Location :


d.Brief Description :


The 16 eurozone states have agreed in principle to tighten fiscal monitoring and to strengthen ele- ments of the currency union, but giving up sovereignty over budgets will likely prove a difficult political pill to swallow. Moreover, it may be early to put


away the fire-fighting equipment. Portugal is widely seen as in im- minent need of aid. Ireland’s new austerity budget— an essential condition for 67.5 bil-


lion euros ($90 billion) of interna- tional loans and guarantees—is likely to receive a difficult reception by lawmakers on Tuesday. Opposition parties have accused Irish Prime Minister Brian Cowen of “selling out” Irish sovereignty and “taking the nation to the pawn shop”, and a poll published Friday showed that just one person in 12 supports his handling of the crisis. Even if the budget does pass,


Cowen has promised to call elec- tions after the New Year, raising con- cerns whether Ireland will really be able to implement the program of difficult spending cuts and tax hikes. The European Central Bank stepped up its bond purchases this past week, traders said, providing some temporary relief for weaker eurozone members with the rates they


must pay to borrow money falling. But ECB chief Jean-Claude Trichet made it clear that governments have to pull their weight as well. On Friday, he appealed again to “the capacity of European authori- ties to draft and implement a truly effective system of macroeconomic and budgetary surveillance.” It is “important that their capac- ity be as effective as possible includ- ing when quantity is at stake,” he said later in response to a question whether the 440-billion-euro ($590-billion) EU rescue fund should be increased. Monday’s talks kick off a series of formal meetings rising ever higher up the EU power chain and which will culminate with decisions at a full summit towards the end of the following week.


MUMBAI: Protests against a proposed Indian nuclear power plant this weekend highlight a growing prob- lem facing developers, experts say, as the country tries to upgrade or build much-needed infrastructure. Thousands of fishermen, farmers and their families in Jaitapur in western Maharashtra state turned out in force Saturday to denounce the loss of homes and agricultural land, as well as voice fears about radiation and pollution.


The long-running protest has al- ready seen a government compen- sation package rejected as “deri- sory” compared with the estimated $22 billion that the plant will cost. Environmentalists also oppose building the French-backed facil- ity because of its location in the ecologically-sensitive Western Ghats mountain range and a high-risk earthquake zone, plus India’s lack of an independent nuclear regulator.


“The authorities are trying to spin this as people wanting more money,” Lauri Myllyvirta, an en- ergy campaigner at Greenpeace, told AFP.


“But the people just want to


have their land and have the se- curity of that lifestyle and in- come. They’re very concerned


about the radiation risk and whether there will be a waste-re- processing facility on the site.” Years of wrangling over land, compensation and environmental impact have become a regular fea- ture of many projects aimed at de- veloping modern India.


High-profile disputes include plans for a second airport on pro- tected wetlands to service India’s fi- nancial hub of Mumbai and a plan by Tata Motors to build a new manufacturing plant for the world’s cheapest car, the Nano. India’s environment ministry ap-


proved the much-delayed airport project last month but Tata Motors aborted its move to West Bengal state in 2008 after weeks of violent protests by farmers angered by the forced purchase of their land. ArcelorMittal, South Korea’s POSCO and Vedanta Resources have all recently been forced to look elsewhere for large-scale steel plant and mining projects after opposition in the eastern state of Orissa.


Special economic zones—a gov- ernment initiative aimed at turning India into a manufacturing power- house by offering tax breaks and other incentives—have also been hit by claims of illegal land grab-


Republic of the Philippines DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC WORKS AND HIGHWAYS DPWH-Nueva Vizcaya 2nd


INVITATION TO BID The Department of Public Works and Highways – Nueva Vizcaya 2nd 10BJ0129


Improvement/Rehabilitation/repair of Daang Maharlika, K 0209+000 – K 0215+000 (Intermittent)


Tactac – Poblacion Section, Sta. Fe, Nueva Vizcaya


Installation and painting of metalguardrails with provision of seal widening (0.23m thk PCCP)


e. Major Items of Work : Item 603 (3a) : Metal Guardrails f. Approved Budget for the Contract (ABC): P 9,648.053.69 g. Duration :


60 CD 2. a.Contract ID :


b. Name of Project : c. Location :


d. Brief Description : 10BJ0130


Improvement/Rehabilitation/repair of Daang Maharlika, K 0225+000 – K 0231+000 (Intermittent)


Calitlitan-Bone North Section, Aritao, Nueva Vizcaya


Installation & painting of metal guardrails with provision of seal widening (0.23m thk PCCP)


e. Major Items of Work : Item 603 (3a) : Metal Guardrails f. Approved Budget for the Contract (ABC): g.Duration :


P 9,649,931.45 60 CD


Procurement will be conducted through open competitive bidding procedures in accordance with R.A. 9184 and its Revised Implementing Rules and Regulations.


To bid for this contract, a contractor must submit a Letter of Intent (LOI), purchase bid documents and must meet the following major criteria: (a) prior registration with DPWH, (b) Filipino citizen or 75% Filipino-owned partnership, corporation, cooperative, or joint venture, (c) with PCAB license applicable to the type and cost of this contract, (d) completion of a similar contract costing at least 50% of ABC within a period of 10 years, and (e) Net Financial Contracting Capacity at least equal to ABC, or credit line commitment at least equal to 10% of ABC. The BAC will use non-discretionary pass/fail criteria in the eligibility check and preliminary examination of bids.


Unregistered contractors, however, shall submit their applications for registration to the DPWH-POCW Central Office before the deadline for the receipt of LOI. The DPWH POCW- Central Office will only process contractors’ applications for registration with complete requirements and issue the Contractor’s Certificate of Registration (CRC). Registration Forms may be downloaded at the DPWH website www.dpwh.gov.ph.


The significant times and deadlines of procurement activities are shown below: BAC Activities


Schedule


1. Issuance of Bidding Documents 2. Pre-Bid Conference


3. Deadline of Receipt of LOI from Prospective Bidders 4. Receipt of Bids 5. Opening of Bids


December 1 - 21, 2010


December 10, 2010 (2:00 PM) Deadline: December 16, 2010


Deadline: December 21, 2010 (10:00 AM) Deadline: December 21, 2010 (2:00PM)


The BAC will issue hard copies of Bidding Documents (BD’s) at the Department of Public Works and Highways – Nueva Vizcaya 2nd


District Engineering Office, upon payment of a


non-refundable fee of two thousand five hundred pesos (P2,500.00) for LOI and twenty five thousand pesos (P25,000.00) for Bid Proposal Documents. Prospective bidders may also download the BDs from the DPWH web site, if available. Prospective bidders that will download the BDs from the DPWH website shall pay the said fees on or before the submission of their bids Documents. Bids must be accompanied by a bid security, in the amount and acceptable form, as stated in Section 27.2 of the Revised IRR.


Prospective bidders shall submit their duly accomplished forms as specified in the BD’s in two (2) separate sealed bid envelopes to the BAC Chairman. The first envelope shall contain the technical component of the bid, which shall include a copy of the CRC. The second envelope shall contain the financial component of the bid. Contract will be awarded to the Lowest Calculated Responsive Bid as determined in the bid evaluation and post- qualification.


The Department of Public Works and Highways – Nueva Vizcaya 2nd Approved by :


NERIO G. LOPEZ BAC, Chairman


District Engineering


Office reserves the right to accept or reject any or all bid and to annul the bidding process anytime before Contract award, without incurring any liability to the affected bidders..


Vietnam yet to achieve ‘tiger’economy, say investors


HANOI: Celebrated as a new “Asian Tiger” two decades ago, Vietnam has lagged behind its neighbors and needs further reforms in order to catch up, foreign investors say. Overloaded infrastructure, an under-qualified workforce, excessive bureaucracy and corruption are just some of the problems investors cite. The hopes and promises of the early


1990s, when the communist nation aban- doned a planned economy for the laws of the market, have not been realized. “Most investors agree that Viet- nam has huge potential,” says Adam Sitkoff, executive director of the American Chamber of Commerce Vietnam (AmCham). “However, the country is strug- gling to live up to its full potential, hindered by slow progress on a list of perennial barriers to investment.” Over the past two decades Viet- nam has been among Asia’s fastest- developing countries, with average annual growth of 7.1 percent be- tween 1990 and 2009, according to the Asian Development Bank. With a per capita income of about


1,200 dollars, the nation of 86 mil- lion people is now a “middle-in- come” country, according to World Bank criteria.


But Vietnam remains far from re-


sembling Taiwan, Singapore or South Korea, whose fast growth earned them the label “Tiger” economies, and whose success it dreams of emulating.


The country “risks falling into the ‘middle income trap’, the inability to arise out of an economy based on cheap labor and low-technology manufacturing methods,” said Matthias Duhn, executive director of Eurocham, the European Chamber of Commerce in Vietnam. The warnings come just before a


five-yearly Communist Party Con- gress, expected in mid-January. A gathering as opaque as it is fun- damental, the Congress will deter- mine key political posts for the next five years, as well as the country’s main “economic themes”, said Benoit de Treglode, director of the Research Institute on Contemporary Southeast Asia (IRASEC) in Bangkok. The international community has stepped up reform calls in the weeks before the congress, hoping they would be heard by the top leaders, he said. Foreign business leaders re-em- phasized their concerns on Thurs- day at the twice-yearly Vietnam Business Forum, held by the World Bank and Vietnam’s Ministry of Planning and Investment.


AFP District Engineering


Office, through its Bids and Awards Committee (BAC), invites contractors to apply to bid for the following contract(s):


bing and corrupt practices. The editor of India Infrastruc- ture magazine, Shubhra Puri, said such disputes were now a major problem, as ordinary Indians, with the help of campaigners, be- come more savvy. “Whatever settlement was given to them earlier, they used to think this was a boon and it helped them alleviate their economic status, but today they are wiser,” she said. “They talk to other people in other areas to see if they’re get- ting a lucrative deal... If they get together these projects will not happen. They’re negotiating very, very smartly.”


India desperately needs infra- structure development to keep pace with an expanding eco- nomy, exploding population and urbanization.


A McKinsey Global Institute study in April said $1.2 trillion of capital investment was required by 2030 to meet demand in Indian cit- ies, and warned that sustained eco- nomic growth was at risk without managed policies.


Environment minister Jairam


Ramesh has said that demand for electricity is now about 10 times greater than output, and the 9,900 megawatt Jaitapur plant could help


cut the deficit.


He has pledged to review the compensation package for locals, but there are few signs that the is- sue will be resolved anytime soon. Rahul Gandhi, touted as a future prime minister, has called for fairer land acquisition laws, amid signs that powerful business lobbies and vested interests tend to win out over most grassroots opposition. Proposed changes to the opaque and out-of-date laws, though, are stuck in India’s par- liament, which is currently in a state of gridlock over corruption claims in the awarding of 2G mo- bile phone licenses. Jai Mavani, an infrastructure spe- cialist at the Pricewaterhouse Coopers consultancy, said strong political will was needed to push through projects. Yet he and Puri said delays


were inevitable. “We’re a democracy and the due process requires that every citizen, no matter how insignificant they may be in the scheme of things, needs to be heard,” said Mavani. “We can’t just get the road and


railway lines,” added Puri. “We can’t ignore grassroots sentiment. These problems are bound to arise.”


AFP District Engineering Office


■ In a picture taken on December 3, 2010 a farmer works on a field near an


industrial park on the outskirts of Hanoi. AFP PHOTO


Before Christmas kicks in, EU lead-


ers want to resolve a series of debates. First, they’re looking to decide whether to increase the rescue fund set up after the Greek bailout, and which analysts say might not be suf- ficient if a major country like Spain finds itself unable to borrow money on the markets.


Second, EU leaders want to move


forward on amending the bloc’s Lis- bon Treaty to put some teeth on sanc- tions on profligate eurozone countries. They also need to bring more clar- ity on a permanent mechanism for responding to similar crises. Statements made so far on bond


investors sharing some of the costs of future bailouts have only resulted in driving up borrowing rates even further on the most vulnerable eurozone states.


AFP Land disputes hitting Indian infrastructure schemes


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14