Manila Bulletin Publishing Corp. has signed up to become a media partner for the staging of the Philippine International Mathematics Competition (PIMC), which will be participated in by 26 countries from November 28-December 2.

“We are very happy and thankful for the support given by the Manila Bulletin by becoming one of our media partners in the contest,” said Dr. Simon Chua, president of the Mathematics Trainers Guild-Philippines (MTG). The contest will be held in Iloilo City.

The MTG is organizing the contest along with the Department of Education (DepEd), Department of Science and Technology (DoST) and the DoST Science Education Institute (DoST-SEI).

A memorandum of agreement was signed by Paciencia Pineda, Manila Bulletin executive vice president for advertising, and Dr. Eduardo Dela Cruz Jr., dean of the College of Education of Arellano University and vice president of the MTG, for Manila Bulletin'ssupport to the contest.

Chua said teams from 26 countries including the Philippines will join the contest, which is touted as one of the biggest math competitions in Southeast Asia. These are Bangladesh, Bhutan, Brunei Darussalam, Bulgaria, China, Cyprus, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Iran, South Korea, Macao, Malaysia, Mongolia, Netherlands, Nepal, Nigeria, Philippines, Romania, Singapore, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam, and Zimbabwe.

The PIMC will be composed of two major contests: The 2009 Philippine Elementary Mathematics International Contest (PEMIC) and the 2009 Asia Inter-Cities Teenagers Mathematics Olympiad (AITMO).

In addition, three all-Filipino contests will be held simultaneously. These are the Parallel National Mathematics Competition, MTG-Sharp Math Trail Competition and the MTG-Sharp Whiz Kid Challenge.