Gov't urges World Bank to revise methodology in doing business report

MANILA, Philippines - The Philippines has called on the World Bank to revise its measurements on ease of doing business amid the country’s fluctuating performance in the agency’s annual report measuring economies’ business environment.

“[I] urge the bank to address the shortcomings of the methodology being used by the Doing Business Report as it fails to provide a proper reflection of the state of doing business for an entire economy,” Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima said in a speech.

The speech, a copy of which was sent to reporters on Thursday, was delivered before World Bank members during their annual meetings in Lima, Peru last week. Purisima serves as the country’s governor to the multilateral agency.

The Doing Business Report is the World Bank’s annual rankings of its members in terms of the ease of dealing business in their territories. It measures, among others, the amount of time and procedures needed to put up an enterprise.

In its latest edition, the Philippines ranked 95th out of 140 economies, down from 86th the previous year. But Purisima said the yearly list is "flawed" since it garners information from “very limited” and “poor” sources.

According to the Doing Business website, data for the rankings come from a combination of survey questionnaires, public and private figures backed up by theoretical foundations and research.

“Unintended consequences arise (from poor data) such as flawed conclusions adversely impacting not only the economy’s ranking, but more so investors’ perception of the country as an investment destination,” Purisima said.

Since 2011, the country’s ranking in the report generally improved, but has fluctuated year after year, data showed. This is in contrast with another gauge measuring business environment, the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) Global Competitiveness Report, where the country has consistently climbed.

In 2011, the World Bank gauge ranked the country 134th, before dropping to 136th in 2012 and 138th in 2013. The Philippines jumped the most in 2014 to 86th place before going down again to 95th this year.

Meanwhile, the WEF cited the Philippines as the “most improved country” on its annual rankings, rising from 75th place in 2011, 65th in 2012, 59th in 2013, 52nd last year and 47th this year.

The WEF gets its data from a survey of business managers and executives around the globe.