The Philippines jumped a notch in its competitiveness ranking to 45th this year from a year ago out of 63 countries but remains in the bottom among its peers.
The Philippines is dead last of the five Southeast Asian countries and languished at 13th place out of 14 Asia-Pacific countries covered by 2020 World Competitiveness Yearbook (WCY) published by the International Institute of Management Development (IMD). Singapore topped the list for the second consecutive year.
The report showed the Philippines showed no improvement in the four factors that measure the competitiveness of a country.
It declined six notches in economic performance from 38th to 44th.
It moved down by a notch in government efficiency to 42 from 41 and in business efficiency to 33 from 32.
The Philippines’ rank in infrastructure is fourth to the lowest in the roster at 59th.
The country has ranked perennially low in this sub-factor.
But the improvement in ranking is attributed to an increase in international trade (54 to 48) and the steady performance in the labor market (10).
The report cited the new coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) as a key challenge to the Philippines’ competitiveness especially on how it affects the economy and how the country adjusts to the new normal.
The report also said preparing the healthcare system for possible succeeding waves of the virus is also a challenge.
It cited ensuring adequate and prompt aid to vulnerable sectors and reviving business and consumer confidence as the other hurdles the country has to surmount.
WCY said the country must quickly resume the Build Build Build program to jumpstart the economy.
“This year’s results reflect the immediate impacts the US-China trade friction in 2019 as well as shifts in executive opinion that may have been influenced by the COVID-19 pandemic as captured by the executive survey that ran from February to April 2020.
However, the full impact of the pandemic on macroeconomic factors are not captured in the results since the latest statistical data used in the study are from 2019,” said the AIM Rizalino S. Navarro Policy Center for Competitiveness, the Philippine partner institute of the IMD.
In this year’r yearbook, the US experienced one of the largest declines in the overall ranking, falling from third to 10th place this year due mainly to deterioration in levels of international trade and public finances as well as in employment and labor market numbers. China also dropped in the overall ranking from 14th to 20th place.