Welcome!

Last July 2012, the National Competitiveness Council (NCC) crafted the Gameplan for Competitiveness with the goal of simplifying government processes and making them more business-friendly. The Gameplan was created following the latest performance of the Philippines in the Doing Business Report of the World Bank – International Finance Corporation (IFC). In 2013, the country ranked 138th out of 185 economies and placed 8th out of nine economies in ASEAN.

The Doing Business Report measures the ease of doing business across ten processes which a business must undertake with several government agencies over its typical life cycle: 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.

Based on these processes, ten work teams have been organized to develop and implement reforms in the business regulatory environment. Each work team is composed of representatives from the different national government agencies involved in each process, plus private sector advisors and local government unit (LGU) officers. (The LGU measured in the report is Quezon City.)
Following the approval of the Gameplan last September 2012 by the Economic Development Cluster, the NCC has been working closely with IFC Manila and Washington, as well as the Philippine Embassy in Washington, to review Philippine reform initiatives that would deliver results.
Through validation workshops, each team has come up with reform targets, action plans for 2013, and even broad targets for the next few years. The ten work teams publicly signed off to realize their 2013 targets in the Ease of Doing Business Summit last May 3.
To ensure the implementation of these targets, President Aquino signed Administrative Order No. 38 last May 17 creating an inter-agency task force to initiate, implement, and monitor ease of doing business reforms. The order provides for the inclusion of the reform targets in the performance-based incentive system of all agencies concerned.
By streamlining business processes and utilizing technology, the NCC hopes to raise Philippine competitiveness rankings from the bottom third to the top third in the world by 2016.