MANILA, Philippines - The Philippines has become an easier place to do business, according to a World Bank report ranking 189 countries based on ease of doing business.
In its Doing Business (DB) 2015 report, the World Bank Group ranked the Philippines 95th from the previous 86th. The ranking was an improvement based on a revised methodology adopted by the WB.
The World Bank Group, which includes the International Finance Corp. (IFC), releases the much-anticipated report annually.
WB Global Indicators Group director Augusto Lopez Claros explained that the new ranking methodology includes new accounting and computing standards.
Claros said that even under the new ranking methodology, the Philippines still reflected growth.
“There is no ambiguity, the Philippines has improved its ranking, it is closer to the frontier,” he said in a teleconference press briefing yesterday. The “frontier” he was referring to means “perfection and translated to 100 as the highest score.”
The study covers 189 countries, and based on the old methodology, the Philippines was ranked 108th in 2014 from 133rd in 2013. In the old methodology, the lower ranking or number means better performance.
Based on the new methodology, Singapore emerged as the best performer.
The “Distance to the Frontier (DTF)” methodology puts emphasis on how each country performed as against how countries performed against their neighbors.
In Southeast Asia, Singapore ranked number one, followed by Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, the Philippines, Brunei, Indonesia, Cambodia and Laos.
Out of the 10 indicators set by the World Bank, the Philippines got negative marks for five. Indicators with negative marks were: protecting investors, dealing with construction permits, getting credit, trading across borders and enforcing contracts.
Positive marks were: starting a business, getting electricity, registering property, paying taxes and resolving insolvency.
In the “starting a business” indicator, the Philippines ranked worst with 16 procedures versus Singapore with only three procedures.
Claros said that improvements in resolving insolvency, getting electricity, registering property and paying taxes have enhanced the Philippines’ ranking from 108 in 2014 to 95 in 2015.
“Measured against global best practice or distance to frontier in business regulations, the country’s performance (62.08) puts the Philippines in the same range as Vietnam (64.42) and Indonesia (59.15),” the World Bank official said.
National Competitive Council head Guillermo Luz said that they were quite happy with the DB 2015 results.
“We started from the bottom 30 countries few years back, the Philippines is now number five from number eight in the region,” Luz said in a press briefing.