Philippines leaps by 8 notches in WEF's global trade index

MANILA, Philippines - The Philippines improved by eight notches in the World Economic Forum's (WEF) global list of countries and the quality of their institutions, policies and services facilitating trade.

In its Enabling Trade Index 2014, the Philippines ranked 64th out of 138 countries, up from the previous year's 72nd place out of 132 economies. The index assigns scores in a scale of 1 to 7, with 1 being the lowest and 7 the highest. The Philippines improved its score from 4 to 4.1.

Under the market access subindex, the Philippines scored 4.6 which put it at the 11th spot up from 14th the previous year. Under border administration, it scored 4.3 and ranked 71st from last year's 72th. For operating environment, the Philippines scored 4 and landed at the 82nd spot, jumping 25 places. For infrastructure the country scored 3.4 and ranked 89th, up from last the previous year's 91st.

Singapore ranked 1st in the world and in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). Among ASEAN members, the Philippines was behind Malaysia (25th), Thailand (57th) and Indonesia (58th), and ahead of Vietnam (72nd), Cambodia (93rd), Laos (98th) and Myanmar (121st).

Aside from Singapore, Hong Kong, Netherlands, New Zealand and Finland topped the list, while Zimbabwe, Guinea, Angola, Venezuela and Chad occupied the bottom.

The most problematic factors for trade in the Philippines included high cost or delays caused by domestic transportation, access to imported inputs at competitive prices, technical requirements and standards abroad, identifying potential markets and buyers, difficulties in meeting quality and quantity requirements of buyers, high cost or delays caused by international transportation, inappropriate production technology and skills, tariff barriers abroad, burdensome procedures at foreign borders, access to trade finance, rules of origin requirements abroad and corruption at foreign borders.

Meanwhile, the most problematic factors for importing included burdensome import procedures, corruption at the border, tariff, high cost or delays caused by domestic transportation, high cost or delays caused by international transportation, domestic technical requirements and standards, crime and theft, and inappropriate telecommunications infrastructure.