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By Guillermo M. Luz
The next three years, from 2013 to 2016, are critical years for the Philippines. They represent the last three years of the Aquino administration—the second half of the six-year journey to completed reforms and better governance. Coming off a first half that saw the country growing from strength to strength and gaining in visibility on the global stage, the second half will bring greater attention, higher expectations, and more pressure to deliver results. It will be equally important to think about institutionalizing reforms so they become irreversible. The reforms must outlast the term of the present administration. These will be its greatest legacy. We all have a role to play in creating this legacy.
Posted: April 20th, 2013 in Columnists,Columns,Editor's Pick,Featured Columns,Featured Headline,Inquirer Opinion | Read More »
By Guillermo M. Luz
It’s one of the key measures of our competitiveness and a report titled “The Ease of Doing Business,” prepared by the International Finance Corp. (IFC, a part of the World Bank Group), measures precisely that for the last 10 years. The report tracks the ease of doing business across 10 important processes or transactions which any business must undertake with a government agency or agencies. The key measures are the number of steps, the amount of time (measured in days), and the cost of going through these transactions. In some cases, it simply measures the presence or absence of a mechanism that offers investors some protection or access to information.
Posted: February 22nd, 2013 in Columns,Editor's Pick,Featured Columns,Featured Headline,Inquirer Opinion | Read More »
By Guillermo M. Luz
As we close out the year, what lessons have we drawn from monitoring and trying to improve our competitiveness rankings over the past 21 months? Let me focus on our 10 most important lessons.
Posted: December 21st, 2012 in Columnists,Columns,Inquirer Opinion | Read More »
By Guillermo M. Luz
The last two weeks have seen a number of conferences focused on the topic of governance and the economy. The midyear Economic Briefing, with the theme “Good Governance is Good Economics,” was held on Sept. 17. On the same day, The Asia Society opened its 2-part series, “Philippine Transparency Forum,” which had speakers from abroad sharing their experiences in battling corruption and promoting good governance.
Posted: September 28th, 2012 in Columnists,Columns,Featured Columns,Featured Headline,Inquirer Opinion | Read More »
By Guillermo M. Luz
It is difficult to imagine a strong, competitive country if it were built around only a few economic hubs. For the Philippines to truly become competitive, it will have to build economic hubs or corridors spread throughout the different island-groups. For the country to grow and remain stable, it will have to establish multiple economic hubs, each with its particular strengths and attributes. Economic hubs will provide options not only for investors to locate but also for Filipinos to choose where to live and work.
Posted: May 25th, 2012 in Columnists,Columns,Editor's Pick,Featured Columns,Featured Headline,Inquirer Opinion | Read More »
By Guillermo M. Luz
Over the last year, we advocated that transparency can lead to competitiveness and that good governance is good for the economy. Our basic hypothesis is that transparency and good governance basically build trust in an economy and society. Trust creates some benefits, among them the ability to attract more responsible businesses and investors, more competitive and honest bids for public projects, lower-cost and better-quality projects, and ultimately better services and infrastructure for the public.
Posted: March 10th, 2012 in Columnists,Columns,Featured Columns,Featured Headline,Inquirer Opinion | Read More »
By Guillermo M. Luz
When we started work on competitiveness earlier in the year, we set stretch targets to raise our competitiveness rankings to the top one-third of the world by 2016 from its current position of bottom one-third. This is important because there is a strong connection between a country’s ranking and its ability to attract investments, raise its per capita GDP, and create jobs and wealth.
Posted: December 23rd, 2011 in Columnists,Columns,Featured Columns,Featured Headline,Inquirer Opinion | Read More »
By Guillermo M. Luz
A country’s international airport is not only the gateway to a country, it is also the first and last impression a visitor—either foreign or Filipino—gets of the country. For this very reason, it is imperative we get our country’s airport strategy right. Part of that strategy includes fixing the sad state of the Ninoy Aquino [...]
Posted: October 21st, 2011 in Columnists,Columns,Featured Columns,Featured Headline,Inquirer Opinion | Read More »
By Guillermo M. Luz
Transparency and competitiveness are two words that are not always closely linked to each other. However, in the context of the Philippines, one may actually lead to the other. In various global competitiveness studies, the Philippines ranks low in the areas of Institution (e.g., transparency in decision-making, corruption, court delays, governance and budget processes) and [...]
Posted: August 6th, 2011 in Columns,Inquirer Opinion | Read More »
By Guillermo M. Luz
SINCE I took up the post of National Competitiveness Council (NCC) co-chairman about two-and-a-half months ago, I have made a number of presentations on the state of our competitive position before different audiences. As I wrote in my May 21 column, we closely track the World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Report, IMD’s World Competitiveness Report, [...]
Posted: June 17th, 2011 in Columns,Inquirer Opinion | Read More »
By Guillermo M. Luz
OVER THE last several years, the Philippines has fared poorly in international surveys and studies which measure a country’s competitiveness vis-à-vis other countries across the world. At the National Competitiveness Council (NCC), our mission is to raise the competitiveness score and ranking through a combination of policy reforms, project implementation, institution-building, performance monitoring and goal-setting. [...]
Posted: May 20th, 2011 in Columns,Inquirer Opinion | Read More »
