I was on sick leave yesterday so I was at home with Jeanne. I was lying in bed watching a movie on the MacBook when I noticed her listening to an interactive book on the iPad. I felt guilty, perhaps also because of the movie I was watching (Punished, great movie!), and set aside the laptop. I asked her if she wants to read the interactive book with me. I only felt more guilt when she positively beamed and said “Yes!” with quite discernible glee. She then handed me the iPad, lay down beside me, and we read.
Jeanne drawing on the iPad with a capacitive pen.
Read John Mangun’s article this morning and learned that the country rose 10 places in the World Economic Forum’s ranking to 75th. This despite the poverty level, corruption (PNoy is all talk and no walk on this), inefficient government bureaucracy, security issues (bus hostage-taking), inadequate infrastructure (where are the PPP projects promised by PNoy?), poor education, poor investor protection (NAIA3, PLDT foreign ownership), and the difficulty of starting a business. Personally, I think all these hostile factors contribute to leaving only the smartest and most resilient thus contributing to robust and sophisticated businesses. Supporting factors are good fiscal and monetary policy (BSP governor Tetangco got an “A” grade recently from a finance magazine), good banking industry, and a good stock market. That’s good news to start the day!
Full report here.
Last night, Michelle was off to an office dinner and videoke session. When I got home around 5PM, Gretchen and Jeanne were out playing so I was able to rest a bit until they got back. It turned out she had been out playing the whole afternoon and hadn’t taken her nap or snack. She was hungry so I gave her dinner early.
After dinner we sat on the sofa and she said “Let’s watch!” and so, along with Gretchen, we watched Thor. She took her nap midway through and woke up in time for the finale. After the movie, we prepared for bed and turned off the lights. But she wouldn’t sleep and kept walking about in the dark. She looked out the window from the bed, went out and up the sofa and looked out the window, then up a dining chair and looked out the window again. She was looking down the stairway and I realized she was looking for mommy.
After a while, she got tired. I hugged her and we went back to bed where I entertained her with YouTube clips on the iPad. She watched while we slowly fell asleep. Only Michelle’s arrival awakened me but I was tired and sleepy and was back asleep quickly.
Northern Mindanao, aka Region X, is a cluster of 5 provinces including the island province of Camiguin and two highly-urbanized areas Cagayan de Oro City (CDO) and Iligan City. The economy of Northern Mindanao is primarily agricultural but also industrial mainly in CDO and Iligan. It is the largest economy in Mindanao. As of 2009, it had the second highest per capita Gross Regional Domestic Product (GRDP) of P91,453 just behind the National Capital Region (NCR) (P246,753). It had the fourth fastest growth of 7.6%, just behind the Bicol (12.7%), Davao (9.2%), and Western Visayas (8.4%) regions.
Focusing on the two urbanized and industrialized areas, CDO and Iligan, the two host several industrial plants along with the supporting economy. The power generation plants in Iligan actually provide 65% (as of 2010) of the power for ALL of Mindanao so electricity for plants is not a problem. Aside from both being port cities, there is also a container terminal, Mindanao Container Terminal (MCT), near CDO which addresses bulk shipping of raw materials and finished goods. Telecommunications is also now well-developed and Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) companies are now operating out of CDO but also some in Iligan. Tourism is also being developed especially in Camiguin.
Providing manpower to the local economies of both cities is the urban population. There is also two major universities Mindanao State University-Iligan Institute of Technology (MSU-IIT) and Xavier University (part of the Ateneo group) . There is also the bigger MSU Main an hour away from Iligan. Together, these universities produce thousands of graduates every year, making available a well-educated and well-trained manpower pool.
One latest development is that Laguindingan International Airport is due for completion next year. The new airport, strategically situated between CDO and Iligan, is just about an hour away from either. The new airport is also a driver for plans of a wider highway between the two cities and even a high-speed railway system. This increases the potential for an influx of more tourists, investments, and business opportunities.