Government is confident it would improve its ranking in this year’s Ease of Doing Business (EODB) report of the World Bank (WB) as reforms aimed at streamlining and speeding up government processes are coming to fruition.
Jeremiah Belgica, director-general of the Anti-Red Tape Authority (ARTA) expressed hope the WB the reforms in four particular Doing Business Indicators namely Trading Across Borders, Protecting Minor Investors, Enforcing Contracts, and Dealing with Construction Permits.
But Belgica expressed concern that not all our efforts for Enforcing Contracts and Dealing with Construction Permits will be acknowledged given the current manner the World Bank is conducting the EODB survey.
“We have already expressed our grave concerns to the World Bank since last year and have appealed anew to the organization to revisit and hopefully amend its methodology for EODB survey to ensure selection of appropriate respondents,” he said.
Among the recent developments we noted on these two indicators are the automation of the local government of Quezon City for the issuance of business permits that cut down processing time from six to three working days; and the resolution of backlog in small claims before the Supreme Court, respectively.
The country scored 62.8 in 2020 which landed to the 95th spot in the Doing Business 2020 Report by the World Bank. This was a leap from a score of 57.68 in 2019, pushing us 29 notches from the 124th ranking out of 190 economies. – Irma Isip
