Philippines aims to improve ‘ease of doing business’ ranking
The World Bank Group’s Doing Business 2018 report showed that the Philippines’ ranking in terms of ease of doing business dropped 14 notches to 113th from 99th. This has encouraged the government to institute measures that will improve its rankings. According to Trade Secretary and National Competitiveness Council chair Ramon Lopez, the government is still eyeing to reach the “top 20%” of 190 countries tracked by World Bank before President Rodrigo Duterte ends his term in 2022. Lopez said the target can be achieved with right number of procedures and right number of costs per capita. He added that the government is more focused on improving its scores than in paying much attention to rankings.