Philippines' business ranking slips
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While many positive developments have been happening to the country and the economy since the Aquino administration took over in 2010, the area of how easy - or how difficult - it is to do business in the Philippines deserves more government attention.
The Philippines slipped two notches in the global rankings of the ease in doing business, to 138 from 136, due to the absence of significant reforms to speed up dealings of enterprises with government agencies.
The “Doing Business 2013” report, published by the World Bank and its investment arm, International Finance Corp, showed that the Philippines registered slightly poorer rankings in almost all categories related to the ease in doing business in the period covering June 2011 to June 2012 compared with those recorded in the previous one-year period.
The report said the Philippines’ performance essentially was unchanged, explaining that the two-notch fall was due to the entry of two more countries in the global rankings. There were 185 countries covered in the latest survey following the entry of Barbados and Malta.
“While the Philippines continues to improve its macroeconomic environment and sets pace-setting growth in gross domestic product, it lags in the implementation of regulatory reforms that would make it easier for local entrepreneurs to conduct their businesses,” the report said.
Except for Laos, which ranked 163, all other Southeast Asian countries beat the Philippines in the ease-in-doing-business rankings.
Singapore again grabbed the top spot, being recognised by the World Bank and IFC as having the most favourable environment in the world in terms of helping enterprises to do business.
