EDITORIAL - Best place to live and work

The Philippines’ good showing in the recent survey of best countries in the world to live and work in was really a breath of fresh air amid the ongoing peace and order concerns brought about by the government’s heightened war on drugs.

The 2019 HSBC Expat’s annual survey ranked the Philippines as the 24th best place to live and work in, one step lower than the United States, which grabbed the 23rd spot. The country even beat Asian economic powerhouse China, which ranked 26th.

“The Philippines jumped up the rankings from 26th place last year. That may come as a surprise to some for a couple of reasons. One of them is that the Philippines has a reputation for sending its own people overseas in droves rather than attracting foreigners who want to live and work there,” the Philstar.com quoted a Forbes article published last Saturday.

Despite the brutal drug war, Forbes said the Philippines managed to garner a high ranking in the survey. “Apparently, that isn’t what foreign expats are concerned about. They find it easy to relocate to a country of friendly people and a reasonable cost of living,” Forbes said.

“With its tropical climate and steadily growing economy, the Philippines is quickly becoming one of the most popular expat destinations in Southeast Asia,” the HSBC report said. The survey – which uses living, career opportunity, and family life as major metrics – was conducted across 163 markets involving 18,000 expats.

Although this development is really a piece of good news, there is still a lot of work to do to enhance the country’s position. For one, the government should improve areas in the survey where the Philippines scored lower.

Poor infrastructure and a bad peace and order image are just two of the problems that the government should immediately address. While it takes a lot of hard work to improve these areas, at least, the government is now doing something to fix the problems.