http://www.tribune.net.ph/headlines/

RP’s poor WB ranking seen to block MCA funds


By Ruben Hortelano

09/11/2008

The country will likely miss more funding from the Millennium Challenge Account (MCA) of the US after the Philippines was ranked among the worst places to do business in the world in a World Bank study released yesterday.

The country’s ranking in terms of ease in doing business dropped to 140th place this year from 133rd last year among 181 countries in the annual survey.

The MCA sets goals on reforms in reducing poverty incidences and improving the business climate as a prerequisite in drawing from the US government-backed global fund.

“MCA funding for the Philippines is partially contingent on the results of this World Bank survey,” MCA’s monitoring and evaluation unit Philippine director Leandro Tan said.

In the survey, the Philippines lagged most of Asia for ease of doing business.

The study put the Philippines at 140th place out of 181 countries, one of the lowest in Asia, officials of the World Bank and the International Finance Corp. (IFC) said.

Singapore was ranked number one, making it the easiest place in the world to do business, the “Doing Business 2009” report said.

Hong Kong was fourth, Thailand was at 13 and Malaysia at 20, the officials told reporters.

Among Asia-Pacific countries, the Philippines was behind Cambodia at 135 and only ahead of Laos at 165 and East Timor at 170. The average ranking for East Asia is 83.

Economist Rita Ramahalo, one of those who prepared the survey, said it measured how long it took to start a business, obtain construction permits, employ workers, register property and obtain credit.

In Singapore it takes four days to start a business while in the Philippines it takes 52 days, the study said.

Also measured were protection of investors, enforcement of contracts, trade across borders and payment of taxes.

Issues of macroeconomic policy, infrastructure, businessmen’s perceptions and law and order were not considered as part of the annual survey.

Trade Undersecretary Zenaida Maglaya said that the Philippines had actually fallen from its old ranking of 133 last year as more countries joined the study while others moved up in the rankings.

Very true.

I guess this is why the Spanish names of over 100 years ago are still the most dominant families in Filipino society.

The way it was intended....

The Philippine Government tax to much in Philippine Business Sector like the VAT, importation TAX, Permits, etc... Retailing or underground economy is good business here in the Philippines because there are no Taxes, Reciepts, Permits, etc... I was surprised that a Filipino Retailer would earn more than a legitimate businessman.

The sad part is that the government spreads the fairy tale of

"Our country has to be protected from foreigners"

while the true story has the name

"Let the rich get richer on the back of the poor"

Many Filipino businesses do not even respect the "laws" in this country, letting many young people work for 50 to 100 pesos/day for 10 hours and more. Imagine a foreigner would do that.

Philippines has a lot of problems implementing its own laws. Sad.

Kick those US puppets out of the philippines,if we want progress.

This is not a surprise to most Chinese-Filipino businessmen. Most of the advantages of the Philippines have already been surpassed by other countries. In fact, what's going on in the Philippine Economy is a rapid transition into a "plantation" economy controlled by foreign countries. Domestic capital has already left the country along with the mass migration of the country's educated middle-class. By 2010, the Philippine population will exceed 100 million and by 2050 will surpass 200 million with migrant workers all over the world. In the years to come, the Philippine Economy will resemble the subsistence economy of the Spanish Colonial Period while East Asia especially China will have the most advanced and largest economy in the world.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ease_of_Doing_Business_Index



Ease of Doing Business Index. This isn't a very reliable source to help people decide. Although it's no surprise to me that we didn't do well, the politics creates too much red tape for business, and the honest man always get the shaft, waits longer, gets audited by bureacrat BIR wolves until they pay under the table just to continue their business.

not most of the "advantages" of the philippines have been surpassed by other countries, philippines is in comparison with india due to growth of the philippine outsourcing business - in IT and particularly in call centers and business process outsourcing. having an english speaking populace, low wages and one of the highest literacy rates in asia the core of it's success. interestingly, the philippines is a world leader in renewable energy sources. it has considerable hydroelectric generation facilities, and has created the world's first commercial scale geothermal energy installation. hopefully my people and the government will learn something from the corruption and neglect that plagued the country ever since the "promising" days of the 1960's. not to mention this "small group of families" who control enormous landed estates and wield so much power that's preventing reform and economic liberalization. this really is the time to take a grip and take advantage of potentially lucrative industries such as mining as the country is rich in minerals such as chromite, copper, nickel etc. i also read somewhere about a recently discovered high reserves of coal and natural gas in palawan.



i believe in foreign direct investment not just for their investment but also for their expertise to help us drive and play a part of the electric horse of globalization. yes, there are over 11 million filipinos abroad, even the educated middle-class, but in saying that this 11% of filipino diaspora abroad are the ones who contribute close to 10% of GDP, by sending home as much as $14 billion dollars last year.



the world's population is increasing so it's not just a problem in the philippines. the past shapes the future and unfortunately, several hundred years of spanish rule followed by almost 50 years of US occupation inherited strong spanish traditions from its years as a spanish colony, including a tradition of ‘caudillismo’, a form of leadership that often leads to dictatorships and leads to widespread corruption and nepotism. the marcos regime in particular was responsible for misappropriating vast amounts of national wealth and left the country as one of the poorest in asia.

in conclusion, i am optimistic we have been labelled as the "up and coming" but never "quite there" country for long enough, with a growth of 7.3% in 2007 - the best the country has had for 30 years (IMF recognized the Philippines as being the 37th largest economy in the world) not all is gloom and doom like how you claim it to be.

Actually, the call center industry is a kind of "plantation" but without the bananas. The effect, nevertheless, is the same -- exploitation by foreign companies and dependence on the U.S. market. Also, the Indians have already recognized this and that's why they're setting up shop in the Philippines. China is moving towards a very different direction -- technology-based industrialization after two decades of labor-intensive industrialization. You see this in places like Shenzhen -- home to most of China's high-tech global players including ZTE, Huawei, Konka, TCL, etc. Rather than just outsourcing, China wants to own whole industries -- life sciences, clean tech, nanotechnology, renewable energy, telecommunications, electronics, etc. AND China is aiming to be the number one or two in all these emerging fields. In Southeast Asia, Vietnam is following China's model. The Philippines is in many ways very similar to the Latin Caribbean countries such as Haiti or Jamaica and very different from its East Asian neighbors. And the survey merely confirms this.

What happened to Philippines . . .

Had our people and government just kept a clean act, we would still remain Asia's 2nd richest country.

We have so many resources, we have beaches, gold, volcanoes, English & potential Spanish speakers, etc.

Meaning no squatters and highly developed education, culture and language.

Sorry to hear, i'm sure it's just for the moment, i have faith in the Filipino's.

It's Marcos' fault for nationalizing profitable corporations and running them to the ground by intalling his family and friends as CEO of these corporations. The debts of these nationalized corporations piled up and was dumped on the Filipino people. But not only that, these Nationalized corporations hampered competition undermining the business model of the country. How can you compete with a government corporation that doesn't need to make profits but rather induce huge debts?

Not only that, he was corrupt that he stole tons from our treasuries, and placed them on swizz accounts and real estate around the world. Along with Sukarno of Indonesia, Escobar of Colombia, Marcos' wealth is estimated to be part of the richest 40 world-wide according to Forbes Magazine.

^We can't just blame Marcos for it. Marcos is history.

What we should be more concerned about is providing good leadership to business ventures. Frankly, more and more are being headed by members of the family who are not really qualified for the job. ie, an insurance firm being given to a medical graduate son.

Also, there is the concern on terrorism and security, economic stability, government policies and "policies", all of which significantly affects the decision of investors. Who would want to do business in a place where your security would be compromised? Investors nowadays are not taking any chances, with all the global happenings.

If the Philippines is at 140th place, that means there are only 41 countries below the Philippines. The only two Asian countries below the Philippines are Laos and East Timor. That means the 39 countries below the Philippines must be in Africa and Latin America, widely acknowledged to be classic Third World basket cases. Most Chinese-Filipino business families have already acquired Western passports for their children and many of the newly-arrived Chinese immigrants from Mainland China don't even bother applying for visas or permits. They just want to make a quick buck and then use the country as a transit point for the West. That's how bad it is.

Where I am located we made 28 on that list. But what is good for business might not be good for our local area. Many of the businesses that have opened are not local but from outside. The local native bussinesses especially in the center of the towns and cities are having a hard time competing against many of these large foreign chains that establish themselves here. Would think that most of the profit is taken out not and left here. And the islands gov't. seems to help more foreign businesses establishing themselves here than local businesses. Some of these foreign businesses will leave with time if they can make a better profits somewhere else. Also, Jobs might be created but what kind of jobs. Many seem to be part-time and might not have many or any benefits.

So what does the Philippines have that the average third world basket case doesn't? Come Monday morning I expect all the foriegn embassies will be standing room only as the attempt to process people trying to get out.

Either to work and not being worried about being laid off before benefits kick in or marry their boyfriend before he becomes a grandfather from his first marriage.

The Answer:

Increase Individual income tax for people to increase revenue for the government.
Increase VAT to 15%
Lower the corporate tax rate for companies that create lots of jobs to entice global investors to set up shop in the Philippines.

Increase government spending in education, infrastructure spending, and police enforcement. Pay government workers decent wages.

*Have a pay for every student policy - pay private schools a certain amount of money for every child they are able to educate that meets our standards. This increases the profitability of private schools, encouraging more private schools to open, and alleviate our over burdened public schools by making private schools more affordable- as private institutions would have to lower their tuition rates to increase their population and be more competative.

Help farmers by increasing research funding on how to make our lands more productive, and subsidizing our farmers to keep them in business.

We need to build more roads and infrastructure in the province areas so that the wealth from the cities can trickle down to the distant municipalities.

Send more trade missions to countries in Europe.

Allow nuclear energy to be part of the energy mix in the Philippines.

Population control is also needed. Teach Family planning and sex education in schools. Teach finance, and business in schools too, to encourage entreprenuership in the Philippines.

Believe it or not, because the Philippines is in East Asia, that has prevented the country from turning into a classic Third-World basket case. You still have lots of East Asian entrepreneurs (such as Chinese Filipinos) who partner with East Asian capitalists (Japanese, Taiwanese, Mainland Chinese, etc.). Unlike Africa and Latin America, the Philippines is not completely dependent economically on Western Capital. But this could change if the peace and order (not to mention law and order) situation does not improve. East Asians will shun the Philippines in favor of Vietnam which by the way is experiencing rapid economic growth after becoming a member of the WTO in 2007. The top five investors in Vietnam are all East Asian: South Korea, Singapore, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Japan.

the situation is worsen by zionists controling the philippines via america.

What do Zionist care about the Philippines? To the point that they use their political capital in America to do something in the Philippines rather then to support and defend a Jewish state in Israel?

because zionists have a plan to rule the world and they control america as it's puppet.

Zionist? The people fighting to keep one small part of the world where one medium sized nuke whips out the nation? They are controlling the US trying to dominate the world?

You have the right concept, but as is shown in the US, much of that will work in the wrong direction.

Individual taxes needs to be lower to increase spending cash, and generate revenue flow throughout the economy. Capitalism only works if the money is flowing, i.e. people have money to spend.

Business taxes need to go up to support the government through a larger tax base. The business regulation needs to be reformed, so as to prevent larger corporate entities from coming in and cornering a market share. Lack of competition places a stranglehold on any economy based on free-market capitalism. The biggest issue is the Corporate welfare that is created when you create an environment where they are not considered liable for their action's. Lowering taxes creates part of this problem, by reducing their public responsibility. Corporations were initially banned in the US for this very same reason. We can thank Lincoln for bringing that back, and ruining the future of the country.

If you want business's to become more viable, the best way is through education and regulation of the big business's that tend to strangle the smaller ones and reduce the availability of opportunity for many motivated Filipinos.

Education is a big one, it's horribly underfunded and undersupported in the Philippines. Every Filipino should be garanteed to be able to get an education to make them a viable person on the workforce. Whether it be a tradecraft, or a medical profession. All I see these day's are girl's going to be nurse's so they can become an OFW. That's the wrong answer.

Private schools are a horrible way to go, as they are generally not held in regulatory comission for the standard of education, nor the availability of their acceptance. It creates a state of elitism, and degrades the preformance of the public schools.

Subsidizing, well that's just a bad idea. If the economy produces more of any one crop than it can consume then the problem is not on the public, which is what subsidizing mean's. It's a welfare for poor farmer's. If the people have no need for that crop, they need to learn to diversify their output. That's where the research, and education on different farming technology and crops comes in.

That trickle down of wealth, it's false. It will never happen. People with money hold onto the money they have and use it to make more money, or to get out of the country. That's base capitalism.

Nuclear energy in a country that it takes 4 hour's to see an ambulance in an emergency. That's a disastor waiting to happen. Bad idea.

Sex education is a must. Especially for lower class people whose daughter's end up taking on the "Utong na Loob" lifestyle. I can't believe how many younger Filipinos I have met there that have no concept of what risks they take with having sex in a non-monogamous relationship.

The biggest problem with the Philippines I have seen is the utter lack of personal responsibility of the police. I have more than once been the subject of a 'pay-me-or-go-to-jail' scam. Never paid them, or went to jail. I was able to convince them that it was in their best interest not to try either on me.

Okay, those other ones are debatable but I think Nuclear power makes all the sense. Granted it takes years to build, but Nuclear power is cheap, safe, reliable, and plentiful.

We need to subsidize our farmers or give them more support by investing in farming techniques and technologies. We import too much food from other countries.

Trickle down theory doesn't work, that's why I believe in a really progressive income tax system, but I don't believe in corporate income tax, or capital gains tax because that's double taxation already. I stand by a 15% sales tax though, I mean it works for Europe.

The Philippines is a TAX EVADING nation, that is why we have poor schools, poor infrastructure, poor law enforcement, poor government. BIR officials telling people that they can overlook their tax returns if they get a small percentage, police officers asking money so that they don't abuse their power, it's just f-ked up.

I also have another idea albiet very controversial which is legalize but regulate marijuana. It's a very liberal idea, but I think we can make a lot of money by legalizing marijuana and taxing the hell out of it while regulating it's usage, and limiting it to designated areas only. We bring less criminals to our jails, saving the tax payers money. We make money by taxing it, licensing it's usage, business licenses, farmers income, fines instead of criminalization, and maybe bring some tourist money. People smoke marijuana anyway. It's okay if people disagree with it.

i firmly agree with this.

Before the government can subsidize the farmers, they need to OWN their land first. But with mestizo landlords occupying the Philippine Congress, that's not going to happen anytime soon.

Actually, the problem is not TAX EVASION, it's TAX LOOTING. The reason why Filipinos don't want to pay taxes is because they know it's going to go into somebody's pockets anyway.

Your ideology Atheism was created by Zionists Sigmund Freud and Carl Marx.

I agree. In the case of the BIR, the officials overlook your tax returns if you pay them. They are even brazen enough to ask for payment or else they will audit the sht out of you and summon you to court, and if legal representation is too costly for you, you almost have no choice. So they enrich themselves while the government doesn't get the money for roads and public education and ect.

The officially quoted figure of 20% lost due to corruption is quite low. It's more like this:

1. BIR sends you a bill amounting to 50% of your taxes due. You pay 25% and the BIR people gets the other 25%. If you refuse to pay them, they can jack up your tax bill to 100%.
2. The 25% goes to the government but when the budget comes out, the funds get embezzled again with figures as high as 80% going to government officials and their relatives.
3. The top Departments notorious for corruption include: Education, Public Works, Customs, Defense, etc.

So the people actually paying the taxes and shouldering the cost of running the government are salaried people whose paychecks are tax withheld and consumers who cannot avoid paying the sales tax.

know what, everything should start with education.

honestly, our generation is hopeless now. we're deeply entrenched in this evil culture of corruption, selfish or nepotic interests, and i'm sure that if we'll start changing philippine society, we won't see the results until our children grow up.

so let's learn from our history: when the americans invaded the philippines at the turn of the century, after rounding up the leaders of the revolution, they didn't resort to scare tactics in order to enslave the filipinos (the way the spaniards did through religion). what they did was they sent a few hundred schoolteachers to teach the young filipinos the american way, and so, in just a decade or two, the spanish culture and heritage was almost obliterated. so when the katipunero general artemio ricarte returned to the philippines in WWII aided by the japanese, he was already an unknown, a footnote in history books when he sought to liberate his country from the gringo 'invaders' who exiled him 40 years earlier.

what did the americans teach our lolo and lola? practical arts, those indispensible skills that every good employee shouldn't be without. so up until now, our parents work hard for mr. smith's company to send us to school so we can get a job and send our kids to school so they can also get a job, without it ever occurring to us that we can build our own businesses, because businesses cost a lot of money and only mr. lim has enough money in town, and the neighbors will only cheat me if we start a cooperative.

that's the sort of mentality that our forefathers and parents have, and i hope we'd eradicate. eradicate means to root out, and you don't just pull the weed.

our children deserve a better education.

The Philippines is one of the most educated countries in the world. But you are right. We should be hiring the world's best to teach our kids and stop underfunding education. Have you ever been to a Science High School? That's how every school in the Philippines should be like.

The myth that the Philippines is one of the most educated countries in the world belies the fact that most of the graduates of Philippine Schools and Universities are functionally illiterate in English, Science, World History, etc. In this age of globalization, the only thing that Filipinos are good at is to consume WHITE TRASH CULTURE from Western Countries and then pretend they are SUPERIOR to East Asians (which includes the so-called ethnic Chinese). Please don't congratulate your MEDIOCRE, THIRD WORLD educational system (which includes virtually all the so-called exclusive Catholic schools). Even the University of the Philippines can not produce any graduate who can speak any EAST ASIAN languages, understand EAST ASIA cultures and work with EAST ASIANS. This in a country that is officially a member of ASEAN and is located in EAST ASIA! Even North American Universities do a better job of educating their graduates in EAST ASIAN CIVILIZATION (U. of British Columbia, U. of California-Berkeley and Harvard have the best EAST ASIAN programs).

SO PLEASE DON'T CONGRATULATE YOUR STUPID, F-CKED UP, THIRD WORLD COUNTRY, INTIENDE?

we are not EAST ASIAN, PERIOD!

But North Americans are not EAST ASIANS either. So how come the foreign language that is becoming the most popular in North America is...MANDARIN CHINESE? How come BUDDHISM, an EAST ASIAN religion, is now the fastest growing religion in the West? Not to mention EAST ASIAN cultural imports: Japanese Anime, Korean Music Videos, Chinese Art Films, Vietnamese and Thai Cuisine, etc. Just ask any graduates of De La Salle or Ateneo or UP or any other school in the Philippines if they know ANYTHING at all about EAST ASIA (or SOUTHEAST ASIA) for that matter. Do Filipinos know anything about BUDDHISM? Such as the difference between THERAVADA and MAHAYANA BUDDHISM? Do they know the origins of ZEN BUDDHISM? (Answer: it came from China where it was called CH'AN BUDDHISM). Do they know the difference between CONFUCIANISM and NEO-CONFUCIANISM? And the two EAST ASIAN countries (other than China) where NEO-CONFUCIANISM became Official State Ideology? (Answer: Korea during the Choson Dynasty and Japan during the Tokugawa Shogunate). Or the name of the Chinese Monk who traveled to India to bring back the ancient BUDDHIST TEXTS which was written in SANSKRIT? (Hint: it became the basis of the historical epic, JOURNEY TO THE WEST). Do they know the origins and philosophy behind CHINESE LANDSCAPE PAINTING? Or CELADON pottery?

"The Philippines is one of the most educated countries in the world." OH, PLEASEEEEE...

Most Filipinos don't even know that their "country" is in EAST ASIA and that CLASSICAL CHINESE CULTURE is the cultural foundation of EAST ASIAN CIVILIZATION! (In the same way that Greek/Roman Culture and Christianity played in Western Civilization...)

Wow, what an @$$hole. LOL. Chill dude. Holy Crap. The reason why we don't study those things is because those things are useless. LOL.

I didn't congratulate myself, I'm simply noting that the Philippines has a high literacy rate. I'm sorry but I know some people who are supposedly graduates of a language course and even they admit their ability to communicate in their major is similar to that of a 6 year old, right here in the United States.

Besides, I'd rather my kid go to one of the many Catholic schools in the Philippines, than a public school in America.

Suzuka00 is gonna puke now

Something tells me we are dealing with nothing more than an annoying TROLL in AntiBeast.

Granted the public school system in the U.S. is a mess. But U.S. Universities still rank as the best in the world. As for Catholic school in the Philippines, do they teach their students ASIAN religions such as BUDDHISM?

The Philippines became Buddhist during the Indianized Sri Vijaya empire so it is mentioned in Philippine History but in Religion they just teach Christianity or in the South Philippines they also teach Islam. I think majority in the Filipinos are not interested in Buddhism so why would they teach it.

Filipinos should study Buddhism because it is the dominant religion in East Asia. Granted that Filipinos are not East Asians, they're still Southeast Asians and the Philippines is in East Asia. Besides, the Philippine Constitution guarantees freedom of religion and Filipinos should consider converting to Buddhism that way they will BECOME part of East Asia.

The Philippines in not part East Asia and will never be because it is part of South East Asia and the Malay Archipelago.

Then Filipinos should study THERAVADA BUDDHISM which is the most prevalent version practised in Southeast Asia.

Ask that to the 85% Christian Filipinos and see if they will be interested.

In fact, I would recommend that the 85% Christian Filipinos convert to THERAVADA BUDDHISM and get rid of that bloodsucking Catholic Church. Also, get rid of their Spanish names. Just like what Cassius Clay did when he converted to Islam and became Muhammad Ali.

My surname has ñ and I find it cool I do not want to change it.

Maybe that's why Filipinos like you think they're Hispanic or Latino:

KAHIT NA KASTILA ANG PANGALAN NINYO, HINDI KAYO HISPANIC DAHIL HINDI PUTI ANG BALAT NINYO. HINDI RIN KAYO LATINO DAHIL HINDI KAYO GALING SA LATIN AMERICA. MALIWANAG BA?

Not all Spaniards are white some of them are moorish which what you call the dark Spaniards and many of them also came to the Philippines.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arab_Filipino

Being Hispanic or Latin does not mean having Spanish blood it is a collective cultural heritage which evolved for 300+ years with every country contributing to the Hispanic culture.