Doing business in PH among most 'difficult' in the world

Doing business in the Philippines remains more difficult compared to over a hundred other countries, with a new report noting that it failed to implement any reforms. The country ranked 138th out of 185 nations in the International Finance Corp. and World Bank's latest "Ease of Doing Business" report compared to 136th out of 183 last year. The Philippines' ranking dropped in seven of the 10 indicators in the report. Its worst performance is in starting a business where it ranked 161st from 158th a year ago. Related story: Poor Pinoy families still have low access to loans, says ADB The number of procedures rose to 16 this year from 15, making it the country with the third most number of procedures, topped only by Venezuela with 17 procedures and Equitorial Guinea, 18. The time it takes for entrepreneurs to register a business also increased to 36 days from the previous 35, the report showed. The Philippines also slid down the list in terms of paying taxes (143rd from 136th), protecting investors (128th from 124th), getting credit (129th from 127th), registering property (122nd from 120th) and enforcing contracts (111th from 109th). It improved its performance, however, in terms of trading across borders where it ranked 53rd from 56th, dealing with construction permits (100th from 101st) and resolving insolvency (165th from 166th). However, the Philippines is still among the world's worst in two of the three indicators where it posted improvements. It was identified as one of the countries with the most number of procedures in securing a construction permit at 29 procedures, the report showed. This is in stark contrast to Hong Kong and New Zealand which only have six procedures. The Philippines is also one of the countries where resolving insolvency is slowest and also most costly and difficult. Resolving insolvency takes 5.7 years in the Philippines, costing 38 percent of the estate and with creditors recovering only 4.9 cents to every dollar lent, the report showed. This compares to only 0.4 years to resolve an insolvency in Ireland, a one percent cost in Norway and Singapore and a recovery rate of 92.8 cents to the dollar in Japan. In terms of trade, however, the country was tagged as among those with the least cost at $585 per container compared to $8,450 in Tajikistan. Singapore was named the country with greatest ease of doing business in the report. It was followed by Hong Kong, New Zealand, the United States, Denmark, Norway, the United Kingdom, South Korea, Georgia and Australia. At the bottom of the list, meanwhile, are the Central African Republic, Chad, the Republic of Congo, Eritrea, the Congo Democratic Republic, Venezuela, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea, Côte d'Ivoire and Niger