Articles, essays, and talks of Rey Lugtu

((Published in the BusinessMirror under the Mirror Image column, Nov 11, 2008) Now that President-elect Barack Obama will be inaugurated on January 20, 2009, many are holding their breath, especially the business-process outsourcing companies in India, the Philippines and others, as to how he can turn around the outsourcing of jobs from the United States. In debates and on the road, Obama repeatedly said that if elected, he would discourage companies from “shipping jobs overseas” by taking away tax breaks, or by giving benefit to those corporations that keep jobs domestically. “We can keep giving tax breaks to companies that ship jobs overseas, or we can give tax benefits to companies that invest right here in New Hampshire,” Senator Obama said at a joint appearance with Sen. Hillary Clinton in Unity, New Hampshire. According to CIO magazine, economists and legal advisers contacted about those comments said they are unaware of any specific tax breaks aimed at offshoring or outsourcing ...

(Published in the Manila Standard Today inder the Greenlight column, Nov 3, 2008) I recently attended the 17th Conference of the Electric Power Supply Industry held in Macau from Oct. 27 to 30, which was attended by the region's foremost leaders, experts, practitioners, professionals, academics, equipment suppliers and service providers in the electricity industry to meet and exchange knowledge and expertise. The apt theme of the conference, "Power sector in the fast climate changing world," summarizes the urgency among industry players to be cognizant of the impact of power production and distribution on the environment. Balancing act As the Asian power sector is experiencing unprecedented rapid growth in electricity demand, environmental awareness is likewise on the increase. The challenge this pose is how industry players can do a balancing act between meeting demand and preserving the environment. This issue is compounded by fuel price volatility, which has witnessed ...

(Published in Business Mirror under the Mirror Image column, Sept 17, 2008) Historically, the relationship between utilities and consumers has been rather lopsided—utilities had the power, both literally and figuratively. But the confluence of climate- change concerns, rising energy costs and technology advances leading to greater consumer involvement is now radically redefining that relationship. IBM’s recent surveys of 1,900 energy consumers and nearly 100 industry executives across the globe reveal major changes under way—a more heterogeneous consumer base, evolving industry models and a stark departure from a decades-old value chain. We believe companies need to prepare now for a participatory network that enables customers to choose from a wide variety of suppliers, actively manage their consumption and even sell back surplus power they generate. In decades past, as long as the energy flowed when and where required, residential and small commercial customers were satisfied, leavin...

(Published in the Manila Standard Today under the Greenlight column, June 23, 2008) The Philippine government has recently expressed to seriously study the option of opening the mothballed Bataan Nuclear Power Plant to bolster the country's energy supply. And why not? In this age of US$135 a barrel of petroleum, many economic planners in countries across the globe are prodded to consider nuclear energy as a more economical and efficient energy source. In a recent article by Sam Knight in the Financial Times, he describes this transformation of the nuclear industry in the next 20 years as “renaissance” or rebirth. This is an apt description for a once dead industry. Revival So it was once dead. No new reactor has been built in the US since 1979, when an accident at the Three Mile Island power plant caused the reactor core to melt. The construction of nuclear power plants in the last 22 years since the Chernobyl incident was on a standstill, with the exception of Japan, South Korea, ...

(Published in Manila Standard Today on Jun 3, 2008, under the Greenlight column) Like the proverbial oil and water, oil and rice shouldn’t mix as it will spell disaster. Increasing prices of oil and rice in the world markets have hit the Philippines hard which caused the prices of goods to climb. Inflation is forecasted to rise to a record high of 5.5. to 6.5 percent in May and might reach 9 percent in June. In this era of oil price of 120 dollars-a-barrel and tight rice supply, overall food prices already rose 12 percent, and the price of rice alone rose to nearly 25 percent from a year ago. As a result, poverty in this country may reach record highs – truly a disaster. Indeed, oil and rice (or food for that matter) are two commodities that have a powerful impact on economies, countries, and its people. Individually, they have become threats to national security of countries the world over. Nations’ dependence on oil and its shortage will pose greater risk on national, global, and ene...

(Published in Businessworld Online on April 3, 2008 under the Openhouse column of itmatters.com.ph, see link ) High growth in digital content offers significant opportunities for telecommunications service providers. But their ability to capitalize on this potential is a point of contention and debate. Telcos clearly need upgraded networks and technology platforms to handle more sophisticated content and to extend their market. And, equally important, they must begin delivering value beyond just access, providing a change in consumer experience and grabbing their share of emerging channel advertising revenue. The market for digital content is growing rapidly and is forecasted to reach $135 billion by 2010. Naturally, the telecommunications industry is focused on gaining a sizeable share of this market, as voice telephony revenues decline. With digital convergence blurring the boundaries of telecom and media, service providers can now expand their market to include areas of media and a...

(Published in BusinessWorld under the View from Taft column, January 24, 2008) At the crack of the New Year, after much of the holiday jubilations, we were all greeted by the alarming newspaper headlines which read “world oil price hits $100 a barrel”. The price of oil has more than doubled over the last 12 months, and has been vacillating to near $100-a-barrel in November last year. Although oil price is back to the 90-dollar-a-barrel levels nowadays, there is still much uncertainty on the future of this precious commodity and the future of energy in general is still uncertain because oil resources are fast being depleted. According to the Energy Information Agency (EIA) of the U.S. government, world demand for oil is expected to increase by 54% in the first 25 years of the 21st century. About 40%, will come from Asia, mainly because of China and India because of their rapidly growing economies But the supply cannot meet oil demand forever. The EIA predicts that the world will hit pea...