Despite efforts to improve the country’s competitiveness, the Philippines’s ranking in the annual global competitiveness index of the World Economic Forum (WEF) fell 10 notches to 57th.
In the 2016 WEF Global Competitiveness Report, the Philippines’s performance declined in eight of the 12 monitored “pillars.”
The WEF survey was conducted before the election period and covered 138 countries. Last year the country was ranked 47th.
“It is, of course, disappointing to experience this fall, in spite of all efforts to improve competitiveness. Our score dropped minimally from 4.39 to 4.36 out of seven, but it was enough to bring us down by countries,” Guillermo M. Luz, private sector cochairman for the National Competitiveness Council, said in a statement.
“The world is so competitive that even small changes make a big difference in ranking,” Luz added.
According to the annual survey of competitiveness, the Philippines ranked the worst on “goods market efficiency,” under which fall the indicators of burden on customs procedures; number of procedures to start a business; and effectiveness of antimonopoly policy to name a few.
The country ranked 99th out of 138 countries in goods market efficiency, down from 80 last year.
Another pillar on which the Philippines fared badly was in Technological Readiness, where it garnered a ranking of 83rd, again down from the 68th spot last year.
Under technological readiness, indicators that had the worst rankings include percentage of population that are Internet users and fixed broadband Internet subscriptions.
Completing the trifecta of pillars where the Philippines had the biggest declines on is institutions. This dropped from the 77th spot last year to 91st this year.
Specific indicators under institutions that did poorly include strength of investor protection, diversion of public funds, irregular payments and bribes.
For the eighth consecutive year, Switzerland was ranked as the most competitive economy in the world, narrowly ahead of Singapore and the United States. Following them is the Netherlands and Germany.
For Management Association of the Philippines President Perry Pe, the drop in competitiveness is not an indicator of failure on the part of government.
“I think the drop does not cover the Duterte administration yet, which has been in power for just about three months,” Pe said.
“And each country has gotten better. You will note that the basis for the ranking drop were failures on bureaucratic red tape, ease of doing business, infrastructure and tax reforms. Reforms here by the current administration are just being secured,” he added.