PH leaps 29 spots in World Bank’s Doing Business ranking

The Philippines jumped 29 notches to 95^th place out of 190 economies in the World Bank’s (WB) latest Ease of Doing Business (EODB) report.

The Washington-based lender’s latest report, Doing Business 2020, showed that the Philippines scored 62.8, up from the 2019 report’s adjusted score of 60.9 (from the initial 57.68). This is also the first year of improvement after the country dropped ranks two years in a row to 124^th and 113^th in the 2019 and 2018 reports, respectively.

“With three reforms in the past year, the Philippines continued its reform momentum. Among other changes, the Philippines eliminated the minimum capital requirement for domestic firms. The country also streamlined the process for obtaining an occupancy certificate,” WB said in a statement.

The annual report measures regulatory quality and efficiency based on 10 indicators applied to regulations concerning ease of doing business in the life cycle of a business.

These pillars are starting a business, dealing with construction permits, getting electricity, registering property, getting credit, protecting minority investors, paying taxes, trading across borders, enforcing contracts, and resolving insolvency.

The Philippines improved in four pillars, namely, starting a business (171^st from 173^rd), dealing with construction permits (85^th from 94^th), getting credit (132^nd from 184^th), and protecting minority investors (72^nd from 132^nd).

The country dropped ranks in six pillars—getting electricity (32^nd from 29^th), registering property (120^th from 116^th), paying taxes (95^th from 94^th), trading across borders (113^th from 104^th), enforcing contracts (152^nd from 151^st), and resolving insolvency (65^th from 63^rd).

For trading across borders, the costs for documentary compliance and border compliance increased to US$68 from $50 and to $690 from $580, respectively.

All other categories under trading across borders remained the same. The time it takes for import border compliance remained 120 hours while documentary compliance for imports was still at 96 hours.

For exports, the time it takes for documentary compliance was still 36 hours while documentary compliance cost remained at $53 and border compliance cost was at $456.

The top 10 countries in this year’s report are New Zealand, Singapore, Hong Kong, Denmark, South Korea, United States, Georgia, United Kingdom, Norway, and Sweden.

Doing Business 2020 captured 294 regulatory reforms implemented between May 2018 and May 2019. Worldwide, 115 economies made it easier to do business while 26 economies became less business-friendly, introducing 31 regulatory changes that stifle efficiency and quality of regulation.

The report noted that economies that score well on Doing Business tend to benefit from higher levels of entrepreneurial activity and lower levels of corruption. It added that while economic reasons are the main drivers of reform, the advancement of neighboring economies provides an additional impetus for regulatory change.