Phl jumps 5 places in competitiveness

MANILA, Philippines - The Philippines saw its competitiveness ranking move up by five places to reach the 38th spot in this year’s IMD (International Institute for Management Development) World Competitiveness Report from the 43rd place last year due to improvements in terms of its economic performance, government efficiency and business efficiency.

Citing the IMD World Competitiveness Report which covered 60 countries, the National Competitiveness Council (NCC) said the Philippines’ improved ranking was due to gains seen in three out of four major factors being monitored by the report.

In particular, the Philippines made improvements in terms of economic performance (from 42nd to 31st), government efficiency (from 32nd to 31st), and business efficiency (from 26th to 19th).

The report noted that the improvement in economic performance could be attributed to big gains in real Gross Domestic Product growth, expansion in export of goods and international trade.

In terms of government efficiency, gains in fiscal policy and institutional framework were noted.

While the Philippines showed progress in its rankings in three factors, its place in the infrastructure factor dropped to the 57th spot this year from last year’s 55th spot.

Despite the drop in the ranking for the infrastructure sector, the NCC said the government’s move to implement infrastructure projects is expected to result in an improvement in the ranking moving forward.

“Increased infrastructure rollouts and improved efficiency in the PPP (public private partnership) rollouts are expected to improve performance in infrastructure,” it said.

The latest report places the Philippines in the 11th spot in the Asia Pacific region, up from the 13th spot last year.

Out of the five Southeast Asian economies, the Philippines ranked fourth but registered the largest gain.

The NCC said that while the country’s ranking improved, much still needs to be done.

“Since we still lag in actual levels of performance across a number of key fronts (in terms of investments, trade, and others), it is absolutely critical for us to maintain momentum and a pace of improvement that is faster than that of our major competitors,” the NCC said.

“We are confident that the pace will continue to pick up,” it added.

The NCC also noted that the release of strong first quarter economic performance data, which posted 7.8-percent growth, is an indication that the momentum continues for the Philippines.