MANILA, Philippines — With the implementation of concrete measures to address transparency and governance, the Philippines expects to see initial positive results in the competitiveness ratings this year.

Guillermo Luz, private sector co-chair of the National Competitiveness Council (NCC), said this following the presentation of the six government agencies that have implemented the performance governance system (PGS).

“We hope to see positive results by end of the year when the competitiveness surveys are going to come up with their new rankings,” Luz said. The Philippines has a declining competitiveness ranking in various competitiveness surveys.

The PGS is meant to address the major indicators in the surveys where the Philippines ranked lowest. These indicators are governance and transparency, infrastructure, transaction flows, and education.

The PGS is a strategic planning and management tool which allows agencies to be assessed objectively, and therefore foster transparency and accountability in the different levels of the organization.

The first batch of agencies under PGS are Departments of Public Works and Highways, Transportation and Communication and Education, the Philippine National Police, Health, and the Bureau of Internal Revenue.

The implementation of PGS is a requirement for the release of the $434-million grant from the Millennium Challenge Corp.

Luz, particularly, cited the implementation of the Business Permits and licensing system (BPLS) initially on 128 local government units out of the over 1,600 LGUs nationwide.

The NCC has picked up 480 LGUs, which have the high potential for generating investments in four priority sectors in agribusiness, tourism and BPO, to be compliant with the BPLS by 2014.

The BPLS streamlining program, which was specified in the Joint Memorandum Circular 01 of the Department of Trade and Industry and the Department of the Interior and Local Government, aims to reconstruct the existing processes of the LGUs to simplify and make it more efficient.

LGUs are required to follow service standards in processing business registration, both for new and renewals by adopting a unified application form, reducing the number of steps, shortening the processing time and cutting the number of signatories in securing business permits and renewals. (BCM)

original source: Manila Bulletin