Having problems with names?
Check Abbreviations
2013 Competitiveness Rankings of the Philippines (February 2013)
Headline Recommendations
- The Philippines should undertake aggressive efforts to improve its rankings faster. The government and private sector should select areas of competitiveness (whether low- or medium-ranked) which are most important to investors and where the Philippines can move up the most and the fastest and focus resources on improving these.
- The government and private sector should identify areas where the Philippines is weakest and plan effective strategies to improve rankings. The Philippines should maintain and improve those high-rated strengths it has in competitiveness ratings. Because corruption adds to business costs, most competitiveness surveys rank corruption as the most serious problem negatively affecting the Philippine investment climate. The government should join hands with the private sector to fight corruption through the Integrity Initiative driven by the Makati Business Club and the JFC.
- The country should create a national psychology to improve international competitiveness ratings overall and in specific critical areas, encouraging public discussion and support for solutions. Cabinet secretaries should be asked to formally incorporate competitiveness improvement into the programs of their departments. The president could report to the nation in the State of the Nation Address (SONA) on the state of national competitiveness. The Office of the President could prepare a public statement (after consulting with stakeholders) on new laws, before enactment, on whether the law will help or harm national competitiveness and veto the law if it is harmful.
