PHL goal: Improved competitiveness

THE Philippines’s competitiveness council expects to considerably improve its rankings in next year’s World Bank and International Finance Corp.’s (IFC) Doing Business Report, which is currently at 108th, and advocates policy changes to improve the country’s competitiveness.

“We’re looking at a range of jumping 25 to 35 spots, that will bring us up to about the 73rd spot. That is a relatively short jump from the 63rd spot, which is the boundary for the country to enter into the top third of the report,” said Guillermo M. Luz, private-sector co-chairman of the National Competitiveness Council (NCC).

The annual Doing Business Report by the World Bank and IFC measures the ease with which a business undertakes certain processes with government agencies.

In the 2014 report, which measured the gains in 2013, the Philippines jumped by 30 spots to 108th, registering the biggest improvement among 189 nations ranked.

The NCC co-chairman added that the overarching goal of the Philippines is to be in the Top 3 among Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) members in the Doing Business Report, currently occupied by Thailand. However, the Philippines has a long way to go, as it needs to be in the Top 20 out of 189 countries overall in order to be ranked third in Asean.

Luz said that among the reforms being considered by the NCC and the interagency Task Force on Ease of Doing Business, is the possibility of enacting policy changes that may involve legislative measures to ramp up the country’s competitiveness.

“In the ‘starting a business’ indicator, for example, the Philippines requires five incorporators; other countries require only one. So if we want to change that, we have to file a congressional amendment to the Corporation Code,” Luz said.

Jesse Ang, the IFC resident representative, noted: “There were a lot of things that we have done to tackle the low-hanging fruit, now is the time to tackle more difficult reforms, which may involve legislation.”

The Ease of Doing Business Report by the World Bank and IFC monitors 10 indicators, the consolidated rankings for which determine the country’s overall score.

Luz said there are other ways to introduce changes to improve competitiveness, such as through administrative orders, departmental orders, executive orders and city ordinance, if the matter is at the local-government level.

Luz said a congressional amendment, which is the best way to make a change, is the option that takes the longest.

Another indicator that may be addressed by legislative measure, said Luz is the “registering property,” which could be substantially strengthened through the passage of a new Land Registration Act.

Other reforms being studied right now by the task force, that might include legislation, is the creation of a national database for collateral that would improve the indicator for “getting credit” in the Philippines. The Task Force on Ease of Doing business on Wednesday revealed its reform agenda to improve Philippines competitiveness, per indicator, in the months leading up to the release of the World Bank-IFC Doing Business Report.

The reforms will be submitted in June to the IFC for their consideration and evaluation for the October release of the report. –Catherine N. Pillas, Businessmirror