Philippines climbs 7 notches in global competitiveness index By Jon Carlos Rodriguez, ABS-CBNnews Posted at 09/03/2014 8:17 AM | Updated as of 09/03/2014 9:32 AM MANILA, Philippines (UPDATE) – The Philippines improved by seven notches to 52nd from last years 59th in the global competitiveness ranking, according to the World Economic Forum (WEF). The WEF’s Global Competitiveness Report 2014-2015 released on Wednesday cited reforms implemented during the Aquino administration for the improvement. “The countrys gain of 33 places since 2010 is the largest over that period among all countries studied. The results suggest that the reforms of the past 4 years have bolstered the country’s economic fundamentals, WEF said. The global competitive index measures the competitiveness of 144 economies based on over 100 factors grouped into 12 pillars. The trends across most of the 12 pillars are positive, and in some cases truly remarkable,” the report said. The Philippines posted strongest results in the institutions, innovation, and macroeconomic environment categories. In particular, there are signs that the efforts made against corruption have started bearing fruit: in terms of ethics and corruption, the country has moved from 135th in 2010 to 81st this year. The recent success of the government in tackling some of the most pressing structural issues provides evidence that bold reforms can yield positive results relatively quickly, the report said. However, the country remains to rank poor in infrastructure, especially with respect to airport and seaport infrastructure. The Philippines also remains weak in the labor market, which the report said suffers from rigidities and inefficiencies. Security, particularly in terms of costs that the threat of terrorism imposes on business, also remains as an issue in the country. The Philippines placed fifth in terms of competitiveness among nine Southeast Asian countries included in the report, ahead of Vietnam, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Cambodia and Myanmar. Leading Southeast Asia in competitiveness are Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia. No data was available for Brunei in the 2014 report. Switzerland again was ranked first for the sixth year in a row. It was followed by Singapore, the United States, Finland, and Germany. Rounding out the top 10 most competitive countries based on the index are Japan, Hong Kong, Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and Sweden.
Posted on: Wed, 03 Sep 2014 01:55:42 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015