Editorial
Doing
business in the Philippines remains difficult, despite the
pronouncement of President Benigno Aquino III to rid the bureaucracy
of graft and corruption. The World Bank and its investment arm,
International Finance Corp., ranked the Philippines 138th out of 185
countries in their 2013 Ease of Doing Business scorecard, down from
136th spot in 2012. The report said the Philippines “lags in
implementation of regulatory reforms that would make it easier for
local entrepreneurs to conduct their businesses.”
“The
Philippines continues to improve its macroeconomic environment, but
the implementation of necessary reforms to reduce the complexity and
cost of doing business continues to lag, and needs higher
prioritization to help assure more inclusive growth,” says IFC
resident representative in the Philippines Jesse Ang.
The
report noted that completing a business transaction in the
Philippines required several complex steps for a number of days.
Opening a business in the Philippines was also much more difficult
than in other countries. “In New Zealand, it requires only one
procedure and one day and costs 0.4 percent of income per capita; in
the Philippines it takes 16 procedures [from 15] and 36 days and
costs 18.1 percent of income per capita,” the 282-page report said.
The
Philippines has the third most number of procedures, next to
Venezuela with 17 and Equitorial Guinea with 18. On securing
construction permits, the Philippines is one of the countries with
the most number of procedures at 19 and the most number of days (84)
to obtain it. By comparison, Hong Kong and New Zealand only have six
procedures.
The
report said 23 economies in East Asia and the Pacific had made their
regulatory environment more business-friendly since 2005, and cited
China as the one that had the greatest progress in improving business
regulations.
Singapore
topped the global ranking on the ease of doing business for the
seventh consecutive year, while Hong Kong held the second spot. The
report considered New Zealand, the United States, Denmark, Norway,
the United Kingdom, South Korea, Georgia, and Australia as the
countries with business-friendly regulations.
It
is no wonder that the Philippines lags behind in Asia in attracting
foreign investments. President Aquino and his Cabinet should take the
report more seriously and take steps to improve the country’s
business climate, instead of a pursuing political witchhunts that
lead nowhere.
No comments:
Post a Comment