The Philippines will be number 30 or higher in world competitiveness ranking by the year 2016.

This was the latest and boldest target set by the National Competitiveness Council (NCC) private sector co-chairman Guillermo Luz for a country that started inching up last year after slipping down the ladder for over a decade.

In four more years, Luz targeted that the Philippines will have moved up to number 30 or better from its 75th rank last year out of 142 countries that were rated by WEB Global Competitiveness report. In that report, the country was number seven out of eight rated ASEAN countries, beating only Cambodia.

In the ASEAN region, Luz targeted the ranking of the Philippines to pole-vault from number seven to either second or third overall.

In the International Finance Corporation (IFC) doing business survey, Luz boldly projected that the country will jump to number 50 or higher from its present rank of number 136 out of 183 surveyed countries. It landed in the ranks of the bottom-notchers.  The IFC is the investment arm of the World Bank.

The Philippines fared poorest in the area of doing business, Luz said, in five major areas led by corruption, inefficient government bureaucracy, inadequate infrastructure, policy stability and high tax rates.

In that survey, Singapore was rated number one in the world. Thailand came in number 17, Malaysia number 18, Brunei number 83, Vietnam number 98, and Indonesia number 129. The Philippines was ranked number 136 or only two notches higher than Cambodia at number 138.

All of these areas fall in the general category of governance which has emerged as the top priority of the Aquino administration.

original source: www.philexport.ph