An 18 sqm mall space equivalent to a kiosk rental

Did you know 1: An average of 720 Filipino tourists arrive daily in Dubai. The aim of most of these tourists is to find work – and most of them succeed, simply by answering classified ads in local newspapers.

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Did you know 2: Even as Philippine-based integrators have been shipping bird flu-free dressed chickens to Japan, Thailand is now trying to regain its dominant role by exporting cooked chicken. The rationale here is that chickens subjected to heat are no longer contaminated.

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Did you know 3: Some congressmen are said to be eyeing a revenue-earner in Indonesia – taxing billboards, banners, and such by the square foot!

By the way, there aren’t that many billboards in Jakarta or elsewhere in that country.

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Ely Peralta, who runs the day-to-day operation of Festival Mall for the Gotianun-controlled Filinvest Land Corp., has set aside 1,000 square meters for small-and medium-sized exporters. Called "Treasure Trove", the space allocated for each tenant is 18 square meters and, get this, the rent is equivalent to that of a kiosk!

Even better, the mall could serve as the exporter’s showroom –for foreign buyers (who would like to see the range of products before they order in bulk) and local buyers (who would like to buy retail).

Oh yes, the mall also has a section for the same pearl traders that do business in Greenhills Commercial Center. This way, Filinvest Group’s second most powerful lady Josephine Gotianun-Yap (her mother, Mercedes Gotianun, is, of course, number one) need not go very far to add to her already considerable pearl collection.

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For the past 25 years, beauty salon professional Antonio Galvez has been pushing for government or industry certification of hair dressers and, eventually, of make-up artists, manicurists, and such.

The idea here is to elevate industry standards (in the same way that, for example, traders in member-banks of the Bankers Association of the Philippines now need to pass a test – you only get three tries – and get a BAP certification before they can practice their profession) and to give practitioners the respect they deserve within the community.

Such certifications are a requirement in developed countries before one can practice any profession.

Locally, certifying professionals in the beauty business immediately poses two problems. One, the minimum educational requirement for certification is a high school diploma. After all, one must know how to read and to write. Two, a requirement to attend a course on cosmetology (at least about three to six months), which includes a unit or two on ethics.

Right now, the beauty parlor business is seen as a livelihood project, which anyone with a day’s training in basic hair cutting can parlay into a business.