Gov’t teams to be created to improve business environment

MANILA, Philippines - The government is creating teams to improve the country’s business environment as the Philippines work to upgrade its standing in the World Bank’s Doing Business report.

In a statement, the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) said an administrative order (AO) formally creating the teams is expected to be signed during the Ease of Doing Business Summit to be held on Friday.

“The said AO highlights the specific targets per indicator and the agency responsible. It also stipulates the inclusion of the agency targets as part of the performance-based incentives system,” the DTI said.

Guillermo Luz, National Competitiveness Council (NCC) private sector co-chair said in a telephone interview, 10 teams would be created for each indicator tracked by the report in terms of the difficulty or ease in doing business in the country.

The indicators measured in the report include starting a business, dealing with construction permits, getting electricity, registering property, getting credit, protecting investors, paying taxes, trading across borders, enforcing contracts and resolving insolvency.

“Eight of the teams are already set-up and two are in the process of being put up because they involve the courts,” Luz said.

He noted that among the government agencies that have been identified to be part of the teams are the DTI, Department of Finance, Bureau of Internal Revenue, Bureau of Customs, Securities and Exchange Commission, Department of the Interior and Local Government, Department of Justice, Credit Information Corp., Social Security System, Home Development Mutual Fund and the Philippine Health Insurance Corp.

The private sector has also been tapped to help in improving the ease in doing business in the country.

Luz said the NCC would give an update on the targets set for the country to perform better in the Doing Business report during the summit.

“We will also talk about the monitoring system,” he said.

In the Doing Business report released in October last year, the Philippines fell two more notches to 138th, from 136th and 134th in the 2012 and 2011, respectively, after failing to show improvements in most processes in the survey.

The survey covered 185 countries last year.

Earlier, Luz said the country’s ranking could jump to as high as the 38th spot this year if reforms are completed in four big impact indicators such as starting a business, getting credit, protecting investors and resolving insolvency.

The government is working on improving its ranking as the country is located in the Asia Pacific which is considered to be one of the most competitive regions.