PH improves ranking in IMD’s world competitiveness report

The Philippines’ standing in the International Institute for Management Development’s (IMD) 2015 World Competitiveness Yearbook (WCY) report went up a notch to 41st, as it had the fifth fastest economic growth of the 61 countries covered.

“While this improvement is good news, it follows a four-place drop in ranking from 2014, a five-place improvement from two years before, and a two-notch drop from before that,” said Ronald U. Mendoza, executive director of the Asian Institute of Management’s Rizalino Navarro Center for Economic Competitiveness.

The policy center, along with Konrad Adenauer Stiftung, is the IMD’s partner in the Philippines.

Among the 13 countries in the Asia-Pacific region that were covered in the report, the Philippines climbed to 11th, dislodging Indonesia to 12th place.

AIM observed that the Philippines gained a notch while most other emerging markets in the region fell in the global ranking, such as Thailand (from 29th to 30th), Malaysia (12th to 14th) and Indonesia (37th to 42nd).

The yearly report measures four broad factors in measuring competitiveness: Economic performance, government efficiency, business efficiency, and infrastructure.

With the gross domestic product (GDP) growing 6.1 percent in 2014, the Philippines’ economic performance factor improved three places from 37th to 34th.

Of the four factors considered, government efficiency was the measure where the Philippines’ ranking improved the most—from 40th year to 36th.

Also, the country improved its business efficiency ranking from 27th to 26th.

“While progress under the WCY appears quite meager, the near-unchanged position of the Philippines, when comparing ranks in 2011 and 2015, is actually one of the better performances among the developing economies of East Asia,” said Mendoza. Ronnel W. Domingo