Citi ASEAN Head pays courtesy call to BSP Governor

Citi ASEAN Head Amol Gupte (right) and Citi Philippines CEO Aftab Ahmed (left) recently paid a courtesy call on Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) Governor Nestor Espenilla, Jr. Gupte congratulated Gov. Espenilla on his appointment last July and expressed Citi’s commitment to the country and to the Philippines banking system. The 115-year old Citi franchise in the Philippines is one of the oldest in Asia, and includes the full complement of corporate and investment banking, consumer banking, as well as a Citi Service Center. Ahmed also thanked BSP and Gov. Espenilla for another year of partnership for the Citi Microentrepreneurship Awards, where they will both serve as co-chairs in selecting outstanding entrepreneurs across the country come November.



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Go on a journey to the land before time with The Mind Museum’s Dinosaurs Around the World

Millions of years ago, dinosaurs were seemingly larger-than-life creatures that roamed the Earth before our early relatives ever did.

Fast-forward to our present day world, and people are still entranced by dinosaurs and their domination over the Mesozoic landscape. They have even infiltrated pop culture references as they continue to fascinate with their immensity – both in size, and in their diversity.

Now, you can get the next best thing to traveling back in time to the prehistoric age.

Go on a journey to the land before time as The Mind Museum hosts its newest spectacle, the international traveling exhibition Dinosaurs Around the World – Passport to Pangea. Supported in part by Mastercard, the exhibition was launched on the Museum’s 5th year of bringing science and wonder closer to the general public, and will run from September 1, 2017 to March 2, 2018.

Your passport to Pangea

Dive right in and get your passport ready for a tour to Pangea, the original supercontinent from 270 million years ago when the continents we know today were merged together. Discover the life and times of the dinosaurs with the full experience of learning about their habitat, diet, and about nature and events that scattered the dinosaurs and made them different from one another.

Who exactly are some of the dinosaurs you’ll get to meet? You’ll first be welcomed by the Amargasaurus – a plant-eater that makes use of its long neck with notably tall spines to feed on plants high up in the trees and down low on the ground. Have a face-to-face encounter with the three-horned-faced Triceratops, the small but agile Velociraptor with its large retractable claw, and the toothless Oviraptor who sports a beak and a bony crest on its head. Once you reach the Canopy Plaza, you’ll get to learn a thing or two from the Spinosaurus, also known as the world’s largest carnivorous dinosaur. This is just the tip of the iceberg, so check out the exhibition for yourself to find out more about the rest!

Aside from the advanced life-like animatronics, Dinosaurs Around the World also features an extensive collection of fossils, authentic dino casts, and various activities designed to make everyone experience being a paleontologist for a day.

This world-renowned exhibition has gone to many places since 2015, right before making its pit stop in Manila this 2017. It managed to share all about the world of dinosaurs to the curious over at Toledo, Ohio’s “Imagination Station”, at Florida’s “South Florida Science Center and Aquarium”, and over at New York’s “Clinton Presidential Center”.

Make sure to book yourself a trip back in time to meet Dinosaurs Around the World while it’s in Manila, over at The Mind Museum!

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Trade Chief on Artificial Intelligence: Let’s make it work for BPO

There is a way to make artificial intelligence (AI) work for the sector of the business process outsourcing (BPO), amidst threats that this technology posts on our major services industry, the country’s trade chief said.

A product of the fast pace changes in technology, AI has presented itself more than just a new technology but as a threat to the current employees servicing the service export industry and the BPO, including the contact centers.

“Let us retool and reposition the nature of the current jobs in the industry,” said Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) Secretary Ramon Lopez, in the course of pessimistic prediction that AI could potentially diminish 45 to 50% of the approximately 1.2 million Filipino employees of the BPO industry.

Sec. Lopez cited these possible solutions coming from his recent collaboration with Dr. Dado Banatao, a renowned Filipino technology entrepreneur based in Silicon Valley, in order to minimize the impact of AI on job displacements. Together with the Department of Science and Technology (DOST), the Commission on Higher Education (CHED), the Philippine Association of State Universities and Colleges (PASUC) and the Unite States Agency for International Development (USAID), the group is currently working on building an inclusive, innovation ecosystem (government-academe-industry network) that will infuse science and technology, and innovation in industries including agriculture and services. 

The AI technology enables computers to provide answers or solutions to problems raised in contact center transactions. Through programming, and deep learning technology, several databases are processed at faster speed and the computer processors are able to respond and recommend actions to callers.

“We need to train affected BPO employees and strategically orient them on the emerging technology requirements of the industry that will enable them to continuously improve job performance. In other words, making use of technology in their jobs rather than being displaced by it,” said Sec. Lopez.

“In simpler terms, we will endeavor to make this new technology work for them,” he added.

The trade chief said that intensive education and training programs for those in the industry should be developed soon by the academe, government and industry innovation ecosystem to ensure least manpower displacement.

He also underscored the need to develop an inclusive, innovation-led industrial ecosystem that will upgrade the competitiveness of the Philippine core sectors, including the services sector, in a bid to improve productivity, output generation. This is in line with President Rodrigo Duterte's agenda to build competitive industries that will generate more jobs and income, reduce inequality and give a more comfortable life for every Filipino, according to Sec. Lopez.

DTI and DOST will lead the convening of all enablers in the innovation ecosystem to map out the overall framework and programs to be implemented.

“There is a need to strengthen curriculum towards computer science, engineering, data science and AI application design, among others. This effort is also deemed to be inclusive as disqualified BPO applicants and retrenched agents will be retrained for AI application development that will eventually enable them to get jobs,” Sec. Lopez concluded. 

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