PH eyes top 3rd in global competitiveness ranking

INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines—The Philippines is expected to significantly surpass its target of moving up to the top third of global competitiveness ranking surveys by the end of the Aquino administration, on the back of the critical reforms implemented to improve infrastructure and ease of doing business in the country.

“We continue to work on our competitiveness as we are implementing a lot of projects,” said Trade Secretary Gregory Domingo, noting its target of being at the “top third quartile” among countries assessed on the competitive surveys.

The last presentation by the National Competitiveness Council showed, however, that the country might even exceed that, Domingo said.

“The top third target is not a stretched target anymore. This target has become quite achievable, and we may even surpass this target significantly,” he said.

“We’re now in a position to take off because of our infrastructure, procedures and legal system. We’re still behind developed countries but we’re significantly ahead of many of our peers. And the financial capabilities of our local companies are also growing like Del Monte Philippines and Petron [which have managed to acquire companies abroad]. These are signs of industrialization,” he said.

In September this year, Domingo said the Philippines is expected to rank anywhere from 60th to 62nd place by 2016, out of 185 countries covered by the Ease of Doing Business report by the World Bank-International Finance Corp.

For this year, the Philippines posted a 30-spot jump in its ranking in the World Bank’s “Ease of Doing Business” report—reportedly the highest any country covered by the multilateral lender could go.

The Philippines ranked 108th in the world in terms of the ease of doing business, up from 138th last year. This jump was said to be the biggest improvement for any country in the world this year, and was also the biggest improvement for the Philippines since the survey started 11 years ago.

In September, the Philippines also leaped 10 notches to the 65th spot out of 144 countries, under the 2012-2013 Global Competitiveness Report of the World Economic Forum. The leap was attributed to the Philippine government’s significant improvements on governance, innovation and drive against corruption, as well as the country’s favorable economic performance.

For its part, the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) continues to put in place critical measures including those that can further streamline the permitting processes for local businesses. One example is the DTI’s planned launching by next year of the “next generation” Philippine Business Registry (PBR), which will allow for electronic payments.

Launched in January 2012, the PBR mechanism was envisioned to strengthen the government’s effort of providing quality service to the people as it would be able to streamline the business registration system.

More importantly, this mechanism was geared towards helping the government to more effectively curb corruption and reduce red tape in the bureaucracy—developments that are seen to boost the country’s attractiveness to investors and global competitiveness rankings.