Philippines’ competitiveness ranking up

The Philippines has climbed 10 spots to No. 75 in the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) 2011-2012 Global Competitiveness Report on the back of significant gains in macroeconomic environment, technological readiness and good market efficiency.

According to the Geneva-based WEF, “the Philippines posts one of the largest improvements in this year’s rankings. The vast majority of individual indicators composing the GCI (Global Competitiveness Index) improved, sometimes markedly.”

The 10-place jump was the highest for the Philippines since it entered the survey in 1994 and was also among the highest jumps among the 142 economies surveyed from March to April.

Local WEF partner Makati Business Club said the country’s strong performance could be attributed to its improved scores in nine of the 12 “pillars” or major categories included in the GCI.

The country went up 14 places in the macroeconomic environment category, 12 places in technological readiness, nine places in goods market efficiency, eight places in institutions, four places in financial market development, three places in both business sophistication and innovation, two places in higher education and training, and one place in market size.

National Competitiveness Council cochair Guillermo Luz said the country’s strongest suit for this survey was macroeconomic management, which led to three credit-rating upgrades, as well as improvements in the debt situation, interest rate spreads and inflation.

“We should see improvements forthcoming. The survey allows us to see our challenges and our strong suits. That 10-point jump, we’re happy with it. It’s already a big achievement,” he said, adding that this year’s result represented a reversal of a four-year downtrend.

While optimistic about the future, he said there were challenges.

The country was still located in the bottom part of the rankings in the area of infrastructure, with the Philippines having among the lowest scores in quality of roads, ports, railroads, airports and electricity supply.

The country also had to address security issues as the perception of security risks to businesses had worsened and the “business costs of crime and violence” had gone up. The reliability of police services also plunged.