The World
Bank-International Finance Corp. has come out with its annual Doing Business
(DB) Report and it's unflattering for the Philippines, which slumped to one of
the lowest in Southeast Asia.
Finance Secretary
Cesar Purisima has expressed dismay over the country’s five-notch slip to 103rd
from 97th in the survey, calling it an “inappropriate” reflection of the
country’s business climate.
“The Philippines firmly
believes that the Doing Business survey methodology of collecting sample data
from one or only two cities makes it inappropriate to present the report as
reflective of the state of doing business for an entire economy,” Purisima said.
“Countries, especially developing ones like the Philippines, will have bright
spots of promise in some areas and not in others,” he added.
One example of such a
bright spot is the country’s special economic zones, where the locators,
managed by the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA), are granted numerous
fiscal incentives in their operations.
The World Bank has clarified
that the survey has limitations, as it focuses only on each economy’s
“largest business city.” Survey questionnaires were sent to businesses in
covered areas. In the Philippines, the survey was conducted in Quezon
City.
The multilateral
agency has given assurances that it is working with the government to improve
the survey’s coverage and identify priority areas for reform.
In contrast to the World
Bank report, the World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Index showed the
Philippines posting sustained improvements in another business climate gauge. It
consistently rose from 75th in 2011, 65th in 2012, 59th in 2013, 52nd last year
and 47th this year.
While the two surveys
gave different results, one thing is clear: the Philippine economy needs to
sustain ongoing reforms, whether in terms of doing business and increasing its
competitiveness, so that we compare favorably with our neighbors in Asean in
the years ahead.
Image by: www.corbettreport.com
Walang komento:
Mag-post ng isang Komento