Our program for building competitiveness in 2014

After coming off a year when we made gains in seven out of eight global competitiveness reports (and we just started 2014 with another 8-country jump in the Economic Freedom Index, released in mid-January), I wish to give readers an overview of what lies ahead in our program.

At the core of our program lies a cluster of Working Groups, each focused on a theme or a problem area identified as an area of improvement for competitiveness. We originally had 11 Working Groups covering such topics as education, infrastructure, anticorruption, power, Philippine business registry, national single window, and others. Each Working Group is cochaired by a representative of the government and a representative of the private sector, and they essentially brainstorm for solutions and recommendations. Last year, we added a new Working Group on Agriculture and Trade Logistics. This year, we plan to add two more—one on manufacturing and another on national quality infrastructure.

Another key project is our Ease of Doing Business Task Force. Created last year by President Aquino, this is actually a cluster of smaller task forces composed once again of public and private-sector representatives who focus on process improvements of transactions that businesses go through with government in the course of running their businesses. Last year’s Gameplan 1.0 resulted in a 30-country jump in Doing Business rankings. This year’s Gameplan 2.0 is looking at similar results as we continue to streamline processes and make them more efficient and user-friendly.

A project to look forward to this year is the City/Municipality Competitiveness Index  which we designed with the help of USAID’s Project INVEST. This project is run by 15 Regional Competitiveness Committees across the country. Last year these regional committees collected data on economic dynamism, infrastructure, cost of doing business, and ease of doing business in 285 cities and municipalities, and will expand that to 550 local government units this year.

We have also worked with Microsoft and World Wildlife Fund to expand the activities to include software applications for city management and disaster preparedness and response and climate change risk assessments. In partnership with the Urban Land Institute, Asia Society and WWF, we will co-organize the Livable Cities Design Challenge to promote sustainable, competitive, and reduced-disaster-risk cities.

Continuous monitoring and evaluation is a big part of our program. We continue to partner with Social Weather Stations, Asia Foundation, AusAID, Integrity Initiative, Makati Business Club, and Management Association of the Philippines to run the Annual Enterprise Survey on Corruption. This allows us to closely track perceptions and experiences of corruption in key business areas in Metro Manila, Angeles, Calabarzon, Iloilo, Cebu, Cagayan de Oro-Iligan, and Davao City. We also run our regular Customer Experience Surveys on LGU processes such as the annual renewal of business permits, as well as our Field Monitoring on Business Permits and Licenses.

Finally, our Performance Governance System which trains national government agencies and LGUs in the Balanced Scorecard system will undergo a significant expansion in the next two years. At present, performance is evaluated in public reporting of accomplishments twice a year at special forums organized for us by the Institute for Solidarity in Asia. By 2015, we will be moving toward a program called Islands of Good Governance where agencies and LGUs have committed to subject their performance to external evaluation by accredited auditors. It will raise the bar significantly for performance accountability of agencies.

On top of our original mandate, the National Competitiveness Council (NCC) has also become involved in other work that reinforces its competitiveness-building objective. We have become involved in the preparations for the Apec 2015 Chairmanship and Summit in the Philippines. Working within the Apec National Organizing Council, we will help the country prepare the logistics, sponsorship, and policy agenda for 2015. Planning commenced in February 2013 and preparations are being undertaken in 11 locations nationwide, including Manila, Tagaytay, Subic, Clark, Bataan, Boracay, Iloilo, Bacolod, Cebu, Legazpi, and Davao.

Finally, after the onslaught of Super Typhoon “Yolanda,” we have been asked to help coordinate the private-sector response to work closely with the government’s program for reconstruction and rehabilitation. In this regard, we work with the newly-reorganized Philippine Disaster Recovery Foundation (PDRF) and the newly-established office of the Presidential Assistant for Rehabilitation and Recovery (PARR).  PDRF will be the business community’s main point of coordination with the government, international aid agencies, and the nongovernment organization community as far as recovery and reconstruction are concerned. It will also be engaged in disaster preparedness (primarily through better urban planning and design) as well as relief in future events. PARR will coordinate the government’s efforts and will interact with the business community, international humanitarian agencies, and NGOs to synchronize projects.

Our plate is full, but so much still needs to be done as we continue to face many challenges and issues.

Guillermo M. Luz (gm.luz@competitive.org.ph) is private-sector cochair of the NCC. Comments are welcome.