Upbeat
No. 17.12.14 No. 2121 10.30.2008
PHL climbs 13 notches in Doing Business Report The Philippines has climbed 13 notches from 108th to 95th of 189 economies in the 2015 World Bank - International Finance Corporation (WB-IFC) Doing Business Report, the National Competitiveness Council (NCC) said. According to the NCC, the country has the largest gain in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) region with 53 spots in the Doing Business Report since 2011. The Philippines now ranks 5th of 10 in ASEAN membernations, ahead of Brunei Darussalam (101st), Indonesia (114th), Cambodia (135th), Lao People’s Democratic Republic (148th) and Myanmar (177th), and behind Singapore (1st), Malaysia (18th), Thailand (26th), and Viet Nam (78th). Knowledge Management and Information Service Makati City, Philippines Tel.: (632) 895.3611 Fax: (632) 895.6487 publications@dti.gov.ph
Copies available upon request.
Governments and investors worldwide often regard the performance of a country in the report as an indicator of how conducive an economy is for business.
The latest annual report, its 12th edition, measures the ease of doing business based on the following processes: 1) starting a business; 2) dealing with construction permits; 3) getting electricity; 4) registering property; 5) getting credit; 6) protecting investors; 7) paying taxes; 8) trading across borders; 9) enforcing contracts; and 10) resolving insolvency. Notably, the Philippines has moved up in resolving insolvency (up 50, from 100th to 50th); getting electricity (up 17, from 33rd to 16th); registering property (up 13, from 121st to 108th); starting a business (up 9, from 170th to 161st); and paying taxes (up 4, from 131st to 127th). Quality-related measures are expected to play an increasingly important role in succeeding reports while gains were mostly associated with efficiency-related measures such as fewer procedures; shorter time periods; and lower costs as reported, as these are introduced or expanded in specific indicators. “Though we are pleased with the results, this year’s report points to certain indicators and sectors which need improvements and more reforms in the next year. The results also show that our task force can be an effective group for driving change and improvements,” NCC Co-Chairman Guillermo M. Luz said. Aside from these changes, Doing Business 2015 also featured a new measure called the ‘distance to frontier’ (DTF) score, which shows how far an economy is to the best available standard in absolute terms. The Philippines with a DTF score of 62.08, already finds itself well within the range of other competitive economies like China (No. 90, DTF score 62.58).