THE Philippines is hoping to climb up to the top one-third of the world’s competitiveness ranking by next year, or 24 notches from its current ranking of 43 in the 2008 International Institute for Management Development (IMD) competitiveness survey.

Former trade secretary Cesar Bautista, cochairman representing the private sector in the National Competitiveness Council (NCC), made the statement in a news briefing in Malacañang after the three-hour joint meeting of the NCC and the Export Development Council (EDC) convened by President Arroyo.

“We expect that our competitiveness rating will be flat this year, 40 out of 80 countries. It was like that last year; it will remain like that this year considering the trend that we have been getting. I hope next year, as the financial crisis starts to ease up, it can go up the level that we want. 

We want to be on the upper third of the total number of samples,” Bautista said.

The Philippines ranked 43rd among 57 countries in the IMD survey, three notches lower than in 2007.

Bautista said the NCC is focusing on factors that hinder the country’s competitiveness, including human-resource development, better science and math education, industry matching, basic education and the management of public offices.

Bautista said the President took the fall in the country’s competitiveness ranking “very well,” considering the global economic crisis that has been hurting more developed countries.

“When you look at the report, you will see that many of the countries also came tumbling down like the Philippines. For example, Ireland, which is one of our model countries in the past, tumbled down by 10 points, and so with Spain,” he said.
He added the IMD survey showed the Philippines ranked 32nd in terms of resilience, which is “better than the UK [United Kingdom], Belgium, Italy, France, Mexico and Indonesia.”

“So even among European countries, we are much higher in the rank on stress competitiveness. In other words, it shows you how robust our fundamentals are and that is the reason we are not suffering [like others] others in the context of a crisis situation,” Bautista said.

Meanwhile, Trade Secretary Peter Favila said the government has received P1.7 billion in funding proposals from the P1-billion Export Support Fund, which is ready for release and will be tapped from the government’s Economic Resiliency Plan (ERP).

Favila said he has asked the private-sector members of the EDC to help the government prioritize the fund proposals, since they exceed the money available, and also to ensure that the government is not accused of favoring certain sectors.

“The total value of proposals is P1.7 billion and we only have P1 billion for the fund. I told them to work on it expeditiously so we can make immediate the release of the funds.

The funds are in place so it’s a question of who gets it first,” he said.

Favila said the fund proposals are mostly from small and medium exporters who “understandably have limited resources”.
He said big exporters are seeking subsidies on power rates, which the government will draw from the P1.6-billion Industry Competitiveness Fund (ICF).

“The President had given instructions to the DOE [Department of Energy] to immediately furnish the DBM [Department of Budget and Management] the billings so these would be immediately paid out,” he said.

Favila assured the export sector “that the government will do everything possible to continue to assist them by way of subsidies and other forms of assistance.”

Press Secretary Cerge Remonde said, “New export targets and realignment of strategies based on focused marketing approach” were discussed during the meeting in the context of the Philippine Export Development Plan from 2008 to 2010, as well as preparations for the global economic recovery, including nontraditional marketing communications and capacity building.

Remonde also said the President wants a “more aggressive” export drive in target markets like China.

Asked whether the government is planning to revise its export targets in view of the reported improving world economy,

Favila said the government would rather observe a “continuing review of the numbers” for the meantime.

“We also agreed at the council together with the private sector that we would have a continuing review because we really don’t know how the global market will perform. While we’re happy that there are very good signs, we do not wish to be complacent, so we’re prepared to work on the dynamics of our targets so that we can manage the expectations of everyone,” he said.  -BusinessMirror