Law expected to improve PH doing business ranking

REPUBLIC Act 11032, or the Ease of Doing Business and Efficient Government Service Delivery Act of 2018, will improve the Philippines’ standing in a World Bank’s doing business report, a Trade official said.

The law, signed by President Duterte in May this year, can significantly affect the country’s rankings in the 2020 Doing Business (DB) Survey if government agencies strictly implement it, Trade Undersecretary Rowel Barba said.

He is confident the law can help the country improve and “even move forward in several indicators of the DB Survey Report.”

“RA 11032 is now in place. If we implement this law to the letter, there is no doubt we can close the gap between us and the frontier,” Barba told public and private sector participants of the Accelerating EODB Reform Initiatives for the Doing Business 2020 Strategy workshop on Wednesday.

He called on all concerned agencies to seriously identify the country’s position and move it closer to those at the frontier.

The new law mandates government agencies to comply with prescribed processing time for business transactions.

It also requires local government units (LGUs) to streamline procedures in issuing business permits, clearances, and other kinds of authorization by implementing a unified application system.

Processing time for simple business transactions would take only three working days, seven working days for complex transactions, and 20 working days for highly technical ones.

Implementing rules and regulations of the law is expected to be completed by this month, Barba earlier said.
He said “since the law became effective on June 17, we have until October 22…to come up with the IRR.”

The official also reminded stakeholders to brace for the 2020 survey despite the forthcoming release of the 2019 DB report this month.

In the 2018 Doing Business report, the World Bank reported that the country ranked 113th out of the economies from 99th a year earlier.

Measured in terms of the distance to the frontier (DTF) or the best observed performance across all economies, the country’s score of 58.74 (with 100 being the highest and zero the lowest) increased by 0.42 but was still lower than the East Asia and Pacific average of 62.70.

It was also much lower than neighbors Thailand and Malaysia, which respectively ranked 26th and 24th and scored 77.44 and 78.43.

The Philippines notched its best in terms of getting electricity (31st) and resolving insolvency (59th).

However, it was in the bottom half for the rest of the indicators: trading across borders (99th), dealing with construction permits (101st), paying taxes (105th), registering property (114th), getting credit (142nd), protecting minority investors (146th), and enforcing contracts (149th).

Its worst ranking was in the starting a business indicator where it was in 173rd place.

In terms of DTF, the country improved in five out of the 10 indicators, notched a drop in terms of resolving insolvency and recorded no improvement in terms of getting credit, protecting minority investors, trading across borders and enforcing contracts.

Getting credit remained at its lowest DTF score (30) while getting electricity was the highest (84.31).

The global financial institution cited the reforms made in the aspects of paying taxes and getting electricity.
Barba, who also heads the DTI’s Competitiveness and Ease of Doing Business Group (CEODBG), said reforms must be in place from May this year until the following year.

“We need to do a massive information campaign to inform the public about the reforms that government has already undertaken. There is a need for “radical and transformative reforms so that the Philippines can leapfrog forward in the survey,” he added.

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