The National Competitiveness Council (NCC) will conduct the Ease of Doing Business (EODB) Summit on May 3 at the Sofitel Hotel, Pasay City, to update the public on the reforms developed by concerned agencies to address the challenges on the ease of doing business in the Philippines

Trade and Industry Secretary Gregory Domingo, together with other top ranking government officials, businessmen, diplomatic members and development partners are expected to attend the EODB Summit that will focus on the strategies that will be adopted by all concerned parties to tackle the issues in different areas of doing business in the country.

An Administrative Order (AO) formally creating the EODB teams is expected to be signed during the summit. The proposed AO highlights the specific targets per indicator and the agency responsible. It also stipulates the inclusion of the agency targets as part of the performance-based incentives system.

Also during the summit, the Doing Business Dashboard will be launched and will be demonstrated to the public. It will be used as a monitoring tool of the teams and serve as a feedback tool that will gather the comments of the public in doing business.

NCC Co-Chairman Guillermo Luz will present the Doing Business Game Plan that aims to raise the Philippine competitiveness rankings from the bottom third to the top third by 2016, particularly in the Doing Business (DB) Report. The gameplan identifies the government agencies responsible to the indicators of the DB report.

In the latest Doing Business (DB) Report of World Bank-International Finance Corp (WB-IFC), the Philippines placed 135th in the 185 economies and ranked 8th out of nine in Southeast Asia.

The indicators measured in the DB report include: starting a business; dealing with construction permits; getting electricity; registering property; getting credit; protecting investors; paying taxes; trading across borders; enforcing contracts; and resolving insolvency. These indicators were mapped to the specific government agencies concerned.

Such setup resulted in the formation of ten EODB teams accountable for developing and implementing recommended forms. The team include NCC program officers and government agency representatives guided by IFC Washington counterparts and private sector champions. During the summit, the teams are expected to come up with and commit their targets for 2013 to 2015.

The National Competitiveness Council is a public-private sector task force created by the virtue of Executive Order No. 206 in 2006, that is mandated to address the improvement of country’s competitiveness rankings to the top third in 2016. It is currently chaired by Domingo.

original source: www.manilatimes.net