Phl slips 3 notches in Forbes business list

MANILA, Philippines - The Philippines ranks 90th out of 145 countries in the Forbes’ Best Countries for Business List for 2013, placing ahead of China but behind many of its neighbors in Southeast Asia.

The latest Forbes’ list ranks countries based on 11 indicators such as trade freedom, monetary freedom, property rights, innovation, technology, red tape, investor protection, corruption, personal freedom, tax burden and market performance.

The list showed that the Philippines was a better place to do business compared to China which ranked 94th.

The Philippines, however, was still behind many of its peers in the region.

The same list showed that Singapore was the seventh best country for business, while Malaysia ranked 34th. Thailand got the 74th spot, while Indonesia placed 84th.

The Philippines beat other neighbors such as Cambodia which got the 106th spot, Vietnam which placed 113th and Myanmar which ranked 143rd.

Compared to the 2012 list which covered 141 countries, the Philippines dropped three places from the 87th spot.

This, as the Philippines’ rankings worsened in four out of the 11
indicators compared to the 2012 list.

The country posted the biggest drop in rankings in terms of market performance to 63rd in 2013 from 4th place in the previous year.
In terms of innovation, the country’s ranking slipped by four places to the 66th spot from the previous year’s 62nd spot.

The country’s ranking also declined by three places to 131st from 128th in terms of red tape, while it went down by two places to the 69th spot from the 67th spot in terms of personal freedom.

The country meanwhile saw its ranking improve significantly in the corruption indicator, jumping by 26 places to the 86th spot from 112th in 2012.

The country also improved in terms of property rights placing at 74th compared to 84th, as well as in terms of tax burden, going up by nine places to reach the 101st spot from 110th.

In terms of technology, the country’s ranking rose to the 74th place from 77th place, while its investor protection ranking improved to 103rd place from 105th place.
The country’s rankings were unchanged in terms of monetary freedom and trade freedom at 61st and 86th, respectively.

The top 10 best countries for business in 2013 were Ireland, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Singapore, Canada, Norway and Netherlands.

Placing at the bottom of this year’s list meanwhile, were Libya, Gambia, Ethiopia, Haiti, Venezuela, Angola, Zimbabwe, Myanmar, Chad and Guinea.