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Press Conference on the State of Philippine Competitiveness

The World Competitiveness Yearbook (WCY) is an annual publication by the International Institute for Management Development (IMD) in Switzerland used as a worldwide reference regarding the state of competitiveness of nations around the world.

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This year’s results of the World Competitiveness Yearbook (WCY) were bleak: the Philippines ranked 39th of 58 countries in terms of competitiveness, released to the press on May 20 at the AIM Conference Center Manila by the Asian Institute of Management Policy Center with support of the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung.

The Philippines formerly ranked 12th in 2008 is currently ranked 13th in relation to the 13 Asia Pacific nations included in this study. The Philippines which ranked 43rd in 2009 went up to 39th in 2010 due to the poor performance of some East-European countries during the financial crisis

In contrast, Indonesia’s resent changes addressing bribery, corruption, bureaucracy, government policy as well as adaptability, allowed their country’s ranking from 42nd in 2009 to jump 7 notches to 35th this year: currently surpassing the movement forward of the Philippines.

Prof. Ma. Lourdes Sereno, Exectuive Director of the Asian Institute of Management Policy Center, appealed to the new administration that that we take this seriously and address the many issues that can improve our competitiveness regionally and globally.

Dr. Peter Koeppinger, Resident Representative of the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung Philippine Branch, also expressed views on the results. His speech delivered during the said press conference was as follows:

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Ladies and Gentlemen,

I think we all agree that this yearbook is an excellent instrument for the evaluation of the economic status of a country and even more for the analysis of the reasons behind positive and negative developments. For the Philippines this year, it comes exactly at the right moment, because it will provide the new government, which hopefully will take over responsibility smoothly at the end of next month, with very helpful orientation and guidelines for the priorities in the new political strategies and programs.

I should not speak in advance of the considerations of Prof. Stephane Garelli of the IMD, and Prof. Sereno on the 2010 results of the yearbook and its meanings for the Philippines. However being the representative of a political foundation cooperating for many years with Philippine partners on the improvement of the socio-economic order in the Philippines, allow me some short conclusions from what I read in the 2010 results:

(1)First of all the results show clearly that the Philippines are suffering under the symptoms of a very weak state, a state which is instrumentalized by powerful vested interests. Have a look at the ratings for the effective implementation of government decisions on tax evasion, transparency of government policy, business legislation and institutional framework and you will know what I mean.

(2)Second: the country is suffering under a bulky bureaucracy and a non-supportive legal and administrative framework for investments and – following the instrumentalization of a misled nationalism – especially for foreign investments.

(3)The state, being a weak state, does not fulfill, in spite of the recently good fiscal policy rankings, one of its absolutely necessary functions: to provide people, society and private business with the minimum of basic infrastructure - including health, education and scientific infrastructure. The results are a shamefully low productivity and poverty - in spite of the high ratings for human resources: the second lowest per capita income among all the 58 countries included.

I appeal to the new administration:

• to create a broad cooperation with social and political forces to break the grip of the cartels and dominating clans on politics and economy;

• to open the markets for newcomers from the poverty sector and from outside the country;

• to level the playing fields as a precondition for higher productivity and effective poverty alleviation and;

• to do its basic job of improving infrastructure, especially in the fields of education and health.

Thank you very much

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Other speakers were Ambassador Cesar Bautista, Co-Chair of the National Competitive Council and Mr. Virgilio Fulgencio, Executive Director of the Center for Industrial Competitiveness (CIC) of the Department of Trade and Industry and Dr. Edilberto de Jesus, President of the Asian Institute of Management.

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Venue

Asian Institute of Management Conference Center Manila, Makati City

Contact

Dr. Peter Köppinger

Representative of the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung in the Philippines

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