Competitiveness concerns aired by World Bank execs

VISITING World Bank officials have raised concerns over the Philippines’ poor showing in global competitiveness surveys but President Benigno Simeon C. Aquino III assured them his administration would work to reverse the country’s low rankings, a Cabinet official said.

WB Vice-President for East Asia Pacific James Adams, Philippines Director Bert Hofman and International Finance Corporation (IFC) resident representative Jesse Ang yesterday paid a courtesy call to Mr. Aquino at the Malacañang Guest House.

“They gave feedback about their insights on the ranking of the Philippines in the competitiveness survey. They pointed out that we were slipping in the survey and the President said that we’re going to reverse that and we’re going to work across several areas,” Finance Secretary Cesar V. Purisima, who was present during the meeting, said in chance interview.

The Philippines placed 39th out of 58 economies, up four places, in the International Institute for Management Development’s 2010 World Competitiveness Yearbook released last May. It was, however, dead last among the Asian economies included. The government also missed its 2010 aim of rising to the top third of the list.

The IFC’s 2010 Doing Business Report released last year, meanwhile, ranked the Philippines 144th out of 183 countries, down three places, due to unaddressed red tape and tax issues.

The visiting officials however, were upbeat about the Philippines, Mr. Purisima claimed.

“They’re very positive about developments in the Philippines. As you know the World Bank is a stickler for good governance they see the president as a stickler for good governance. They’re very happy about the developments so far,” he said.

“They talked about the support that the World Bank is giving to the Philippines in the area of infrastructure development, in the area of social services such as the conditional cash transfer and they reiterated their commitment to support the Philippines not only in loans but in technical assistance.” –Businessworld