DTI Chief Says Drop in Competitiveness Ranking ‘Hard to Believe’

Trade and industry Secretary Ramon Lopez said Thursday that the country’s supposed plunge in competitiveness ranking as indicated by a survey done by Swiss business school IMD is “hard to believe” as the Philippines has been recording robust economic growth.

The IMD World Competitiveness Report showed that the Philippines ranked 50th this year from the 41st spot in the 2017 survey, suggesting it had the “most significant decline” in Asia.

“The reasons for such drop include a decline in tourism and employment, the worsening of public finances and a surge in concerns about the education system,” the IMD report stated.

The competitiveness report is based on 258 indicators, which involve hard data such as employment and trade statistics as well as soft data from Executive Opinion Survey measuring business perception on various issues — corruption, environmental concerns, and quality of life.

“Hard to believe the competitiveness ranking report. But we have one of the fastest growth in the world; faster than most peers,” Lopez told reporters in a text message.

He also noted that the IMD report only ranks 63 economies compared to competitiveness surveys of World Economic Forum and World Bank-International Finance Corp. that involves 137 and 190 economies, respectively. “Thus, I’m assuming many much smaller economies [are] not tracked by IMD,” the DTI chief said.

Within ASEAN, the IMD competitiveness index only include five countries — Singapore at third spot, Malaysia at 22nd, Thailand at 30th, Indonesia at 43rd, and the Philippines at 50th. “Our growth rates and reforms have been faster,” Lopez stressed.

The most competitive economies in the world in the latest IMD survey are United States, Hong Kong, Singapore, Netherlands, Switzerland, Denmark, United Arab Emirates, Norway, Sweden, and Canada.

Despite the less than stellar ranking from IMD however, Lopez remains optimistic that the Philippines’ competitiveness can only go up. He noted that “the fast growth we are having, infrastructure build up, various reforms in ease of doing business and the growing middle class will enable us to improve our rank soon.” (PNA)