PHL improves competitiveness but still trails peers in the region

The Philippines improved its rankings in the latest World Competitiveness Report, which is designed to capture a broad range of factors affecting an economy's business climate, by Switzerland-based World Economic Forum. The WE Forum said the Philippines posted one of the largest improvements in this year's rankings when it jumped 10 notches from 85th place t0 75th, citing the improving fiscal and economic conditions in the country. A total of 142 economies were included in the poll. The competitiveness ranking is based on the Global Competitiveness Index (GCI), developed for the WE Forum by Xavier Sala-i-Martin, Professor of Economics at the Columbia University, and introduced in 2004. The GCI comprises 12 categories – the pillars of competitiveness – which together provide a comprehensive picture of a country’s competitiveness landscape. The pillars are: institutions, infrastructure, macroeconomic environment, health and primary education, higher education and training, goods market efficiency, labor market efficiency, financial market development, technological readiness, market size, business sophistication and innovation. The WE Forum said the Philippines suffered weakness in the quality of its public institutions, issues of corruption and physical security, and quality of education and infrastructure. "Against such weaknesses, the macroeconomic situation of the Philippines is more positive: the country is up 14 places to 54th in the macroeconomic environment pillar, thanks to a slightly lower public deficit and debt, an improved country credit rating, and inflation that remains under control," the WE Forum said. Despite the improvement in its rankings, however, the Philippines still trailed other economies in the Asia Pacific Region. Singapore was the most competitive in the region, placing 2nd, while Japan was in 9th place. Hong Kong, meanwhile, was in the 11th position, followed by Taiwan's 13th. Australia, 20th; Malaysia, 21st; Korea, 24th; China, 26th; Thailand, 39th; India, 56th; Indonesia, 46th and Vietnam, 65th. Switzerland topped the overall rankings in The Global Competitiveness Report, followed by Singapore and Sweden, respectively. Also in the Top 10 were Finland, US, Germany, The Netherlands, Denmark, Japan and the UK. “After a number of difficult years, a recovery from the economic crisis is tentatively emerging, although it has been very unequally distributed: much of the developing world is still seeing relatively strong growth, despite some risk of overheating, while most advanced economies continue to experience sluggish recovery, persistent unemployment and financial vulnerability, with no clear horizon for improvement," said Klaus Schwab, Founder and Executive Chairman of the World Economic Forum. --CMA/OMG, GMA News