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THE
International Finance Corp. (IFC), the World Bank’s
private-sector arm, is set to launch Monday its first
subnational report in Southeast Asia titled “Doing
Business in the Philippines 2008.”
With the
release of the report, the IFC hopes the results and
reforms implemented in countries where similar
subnational reports have been made could inspire a
similar course of action in the Philippines.
In a
roundtable discussion with the BusinessMirror, the IFC
said that just like its subnational report in Mexico in
2005, the Philippine report also uncovered several
bottlenecks and best practices that could be used to
improve the ease of doing business in the country.
Zenaida
Hernandez Uriz, investment policy officer of the Foreign
Investment Advisory Service (FIAS), a multidonor service
of the World Bank Group, said the report focused on
identifying regulation bottlenecks that prevent
Philippine cities from efficiently responding to the
needs of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) when
starting a business, dealing with licenses and
registering property.
The
report, Zenaida said, would also provide other cities
and even small municipalities best practices from local
cities featured in the report that would also contribute
in improving local legislation for starting a business,
dealing licenses and registering property.
“The
report focused on the review of business laws and
regulations. We spoke mainly to lawyers and business
consultants who help firms get registered. We developed
case studies per indicator [to show how local and
national regulations are applied per city],” Uriz said
during the roundtable on Wednesday.
“The
purpose of this research is not about ranking. The
ultimate goal of the report is to draw the attention,
particularly of local government decision-makers, to the
fact that there are many options for them to improve
their investment climate through their own local
action,” she explained.
Uriz
said some reforms that can be implemented may not even
require a major revision in business legislation. Among
these are the number of inspections, some of which were
found excessive in certain cities, to ensure that local
firms are compliant with local and national regulations.
In
Mexico in 2005, reforms such as the use of new
technology and the removal of unnecessary requirements
that made businesses processes longer than the ideal
were introduced after the release of the study.
For the
Philippine report, the study included 21 major
Philippine cities, namely all 15 NCR cities such as
Quezon City and Manila; the three Metro Cebu cities of
Cebu, Lapu-Lapu and Mandaue; Davao City; and Tanauan,
Batangas. |
