Doing Business Report
The Doing Business Report, a project of the World Bank, ranks economies on the basis of the prevalence and enforcement of business regulations – for starting a business, dealing with construction permits, employing workers, registering property, getting credit, protecting investors, trading across borders, and closing a business. The Philippines ranked 148th overall of the 183 economies. Since 2008, the Philippines has ranked last among the ASEAN-6. Percentile rankings of the ASEAN-6 economies are shown in Figure 42.
The country ranked poorly in starting and closing a business, where it ranked 156th and 153rd respectively. Starting a business in the Philippines takes 38 days compared to the ASEAN-5 leader Malaysia’s 17 days. Closing a business in the Philippines takes approximately 5.7 years compared to Malaysia’s 2.3. The only area where the Philippines rated better was trading across borders, where it ranked 61st. However, compared to Malaysia’s 37th rank on the same measure, the Philippines was unimpressive.
