British ambassador calls for competitiveness-enhancing reforms

British Ambassador Stephen Lillie has called for continued competitiveness-enhancing reforms through legislation since such laws have the potential to boost the economy.

“The momentum has already been established with the wavea of reforms passed in Congress. It is essential that the handover from one administration to the next should not lead to a loss of momentum in terms of economic and social reform,” Lillie said.

The British Embassy is supporting the efforts of its Philippine economic development partners such as University of the Philippines Open University (UPOU). Recently, the British Embassy granted support to the project, “Improving Philippine Competitiveness through Policy of Economic Reforms and Strategies.” The project is being spearheaded by the UPOU with partners from local and foreign business chambers and Congress’ economic offices.

“This year is election year, the lawmakers can only do so much for the rest of the duration of the 14th Congress. Thus, the project is poised to identify legislative reforms for inclusion in the priority list of the next Philippine Congress [15th Congress], “ UPOU Dean and project coordinator Dr. Fe Mendoza said.

Moreover, Mendoza said that through the project, the UPOU is pushing for the passage of meaningful legislative reforms such as the amendment to the BSP Charter, the EPIRA, Corporate Recovery Act, amendments to the BOT Law, among others, to stir the country’s economic growth.

Ambassador Lillie added that the project is intended to provide a continuing forum for consultations and discussions about reforms needed before and after the upcoming elections in order to improve the country’s competitiveness.

To date, the Congress has passed a new credit information law that regulates the operations and services of a credit information system (Republic Act 9510), and an investment scheme called Personal Equity and Retirement Account (Republic Act 9505).

To encourage investment in the stock market, the Congress has also permanently exempted stock trading from documentary stamp tax (Republic Act 9496).

Awaiting the signature of President Arroyo is the Real Estate Investment Company Act, which will allow small and large investors to participate directly in the ownership and financing of large-scale real estate projects at affordable rates of investment, and the Pre-Need Code of 2008.

Recently, the bill (Senate Bill 3220 and House Bill 6899) amending the National Internal Revenue Code of 1997 to allow the Bureau of Internal Revenue to swap information on tax matters with foreign governments was passed by both Houses of Congress.

Mendoza said that this is an opportune time to draft the next legislative agenda. The Philippine eco-nomy remained fragile with its 0.8-percent growth for the third quarter, a far cry from the 4.6-percent growth posted in the same period in 2008. But the fragile economy is just one of the challenges faced by the Philippines. It also has to contend with the results of three international reports, which showed that the country is not on a par with other countries in terms of competitiveness.

The Philippines slid to 87th place from 71th place, down by 16 notches, among the 133 countries based on the World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Report 2009. The country also fell by three places, from 141st to 144th based on World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business 2010. –RENE MARTEL, Manila Times

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