Investments in Negros Occidental in the first 11 months of 2005 hit P11.185 billion, records of the provincial office of the Department of Trade and Industry show.

The figure, based on investments generated through business name registrations from January to November last year, indicate a strong upsurge compared to 2004's, which totaled only P3.669 billion.

DTI-Negros Occidental registers businesses under the industry, services, and agriculture, fishery and forestry sectors.

Drought hits farm output

MANILA - A prolonged 2005 dry spell likely trimmed growth in the Philippines farm sector to some 2.5 percent, Agriculture Secretary Domingo Panganiban said yesterday.

The preliminary figure was lower than the 2005 full-year government target of 3.0-4.0 percent growth. Agriculture accounts for about a fifth of the country's economic output.

"It would be safe to say that total output of this major economic sector for the entire year could end up only slightly better than two percent, assuming that the production performance in the fourth quarter (was) much better than in the first nine months," Panganiban said.

Textile, garments
exports rise in '05

MANILA -Textile and garments exports rose by about five percent in the first 10 months of 2005, indicating that the industry was prospering despite the expiration of the Multifibre Arrangement, a trade official said yesterday.

Exports from January to October in 2005 hit about $2.13 billion compared to $2.02 billion in 2004, an official from the government's Garment and Textiles Export Board said.

Exports to the United States, the country's largest market, fell by about two percent in the period to $1.6 billion, board officer Carlo Isla said.

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