RP improves in competitiveness ranking

MANILA, Philippines - The Philippines has moved up in terms of competitiveness, placing 39th among 58 countries surveyed by the Switzerland-based Institute for Management Development (IMD).

The IMD Competitiveness Yearbook 2010 gave the Philippines 56.526 points, compared to 54.49 points last year, as it noted improvements in the economy and government efficiency.

Last year, the country’s ranking dropped to 43rd place, the lowest since it was included in the IMD rankings decades ago.

It placed 40th in 2008.

The highest ranked country was Singapore, which got a perfect score of 100, followed by Hong Kong.

Of the four indicators monitored, the Philippines improved in terms of economic performance from 51 to 34 points, and government efficiency from 42 to 31.

The Philippines surpassed countries like Italy (40), South Africa (44), and Russia (51), but trailed other Asian countries like Malaysia (10), China (18), South Korea (23), Thailand (26), Japan (27), India (31) and Indonesia (35).

A report by GMAnews said the Philippines is trailing behind other Asian nations in competitiveness because of corruption.

With the change in government, Filipinos are optimistic that the economy would further improve. 

Other countries ranked in the top 10 were the United States, Switzerland, Australia, Sweden, Canada, Taiwan and Norway.