Philippine Asian News Today Vol 19 No 10 | Page 16

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PHILIPPINE ASIAN NEWS TODAY May 16 - 31, 2017
PHL competitiveness rank
up one notch
The Philippines im-
proved its ranking by one
notch to 41st from 42nd in
the 2017 World Competi-
tiveness Yearbook (WCY)
among 63 countries.
With the very small im-
provement, the Philippines’
2017 ranking matched went
back to its ranking in the
2015 WCY edition and ad-
justed accordingly its place
among Asia-Pacific Econo-
mies to 11th from 12th in
2016.
In the 2017 report, the
economies were evaluated
across 346 criteria in four
broad categories: Econom-
ic performance, govern-
ment efficiency, business
efficiency, and infrastruc-
ture. The WCY uses both
macroeconomic data and
perceptions-based indica-
tors in ranking the competi-
tiveness of countries.
The Philippines’ per-
formed best in the econom-
ic performance as its rank
soared 12 places to 26th in
2017 from 38th in 2016.
This improvement was
largely driven by a jump
from 31st to 12th in the Do-
mestic Economy subfactor,
led by robust GDP growth,
as well as improvement in
the Employment sub-factor
from 19th to 4th. Notably,
the Philippines ranked 3rd
in both real GDP growth
and resilience of economy,
but placed near bottom of
the rankings in GDP per
capita.
But more than GDP
and productivity, national
competitiveness
encom-
passes the political, social,
and cultural environment
in which enterprises oper-
ate. The competitiveness of
a nation and its enterprises
enables sustainable value
creation and prosperity not
only for enterprises but for
the people.
This year, the country
faltered in Government and
Business Efficiency, fac-
tors that are essential for
sustainable value creation
and long-term competi-
tiveness. Laggard improve-
ment in Infrastructure also
weighed on the country’s
overall ranking.
The Philippines also
performed well in the crite-
ria for central bank policy
(2nd), but continued to lag
behind in terms of start-up
procedures and other crite-
ria covering ease of doing
business.
Notably, the rankings
for Business Efficiency like-
wise saw the Philippines
slip, from 24th in 2016 to
28th this year.
Drops were registered
in the sub-factors for Pro-
ductivity and Efficiency
(36th to 52nd), Labor Mar-
ket (4th to 5th), Manage-
ment Practices (24th to
28th), and Attitudes and
Values (12th to 18th), while
the country rose from 35th
to 33rd in Finance.
The Philippines placed
highly in skilled labor, flex-
ibility and adaptability, and
national culture. On the
other hand, the country
placed 62nd in both overall
productivity and labor pro-
ductivity.
Finally, the country con-
tinued to perform poorly in
Infrastructure despite going
up one place in 2017, from
55th to 54th.
Overall, most of the
improvements in ranking
were driven by data-based
indicators, while decreases
were mostly accounted for
by perceptions-based fac-
tors.
Hong Kong topped the
2017 competitiveness rank-
ings, with Switzerland, Sin-
gapore, The United States,
and the Netherlands com-
pleting the top five.
In the bottom of the
ranking are several econo-
mies undergoing political
or economic upheavals,
including Venezuela, Brazil,
and Ukraine.●
- Bernie Cahiles-Magkilat, MB
SMC’s $2-B solution to
Manila’s floods
Conglomerate San
Miguel Corp. (SMC) is
planning to propose to
the Duterte administra-
tion a $2-billion program
to build a flood  mitigation
system with a waste-to-en-
ergy component for Metro
Manila.
On the sidelines of
the listing of Eagle Ce-
ment Corp., SMC presi-
dent Ramon S. Ang told
reporters the metropolis
was prone to flooding be-
cause Laguna de Bay,
which used to be an effec-
tive natural catch basin for
excess rainwater, was now
all clogged up.
“There should be
a spillway which will al-
low water from Laguna
de Bay to flow to Manila
Bay,” Ang said. The spill-
way should have a diame-
ter of 14 meters (46 feet),
he said, adding such a
system would prevent the
recurrence of the massive
flooding brought about by
Tropical Storm Ondoy in
2009.
“The
government
long knows about this so-
lution. That’s the most im-
portant flood control proj-
ect and not just dredging
(of waterways),” Ang said.
“Once all the trash is tak-
en out, Metro Manila will
WWW.PHILIPPINEASIANNEWSTODAY.COM
be flood-free.”
In return for building
this flood control system,
Ang said SMC would ask
for the right to “use the
materials.” The trash col-
lected could be used to
generate power, he said.
Ang said SMC al-
ready has a prospective
technical partner for the
project, which he declined
to name. The unsolicited
proposal, if the govern-
ment decides to give it a
go, will still be subject to a
Swiss challenge.
Ang said it’s best for
the government to contin-
ue bidding out projects to
the private sector instead
of relying on government-
to-government infrastruc-
ture deals. This is amid
government
economic
managers’ signal of veer-
ing away from public-pri-
vate partnership (PPP)
deals in favor of official
development assistance
(ODA)-funded projects.
Ang also said resorting
to borrowings would
“destroy the balance
sheet of the government”
and jack up interest rates
in the country.●
- D. Dumlao-Abadilla, Inq.