On 23 March 2017, GPCCI, in partnership with the German Embassy and the German Club, held its regular Economic Forum. GPCCI Members and guests were in attendance to listen to Mr. Guillermo M. Luz as he presented on the “Competitiveness and Ease of Doing Business under the New Administration”. Mr. Luz is the Private Sector Co-Chairman of National Competitiveness Council & Chief Resilience Officer and Adviser for the Philippine Disaster Resilience Foundation.
Mr. Luz started with how the Philippines is now in the global lens. He then explained the vision of the National Competitiveness Council and its intentions, such as ways to improve the competitive nature of the Philippines’ business and company processes. Mr. Luz also described the country’s strengths and weaknesses in its overall competitive standings worldwide. He then presented the Global Competitiveness Report Card, which numerically evaluates major factors contributing to the competitive level that the Philippines ranks in, and identifies the reports it strives in.
Mr. Luz also tackled the comparison between the Philippines and other countries mentioning how there is a lack of simplified methods (i.e. acquiring local government unit permits and application systems) to conduct business in the country.
He stressed that the Council’s main objective is to simplify processes since majority of the complications for business set-up are caused by unnecessary and/or redundant processes. Mr. Luz insisted that electronic banking and online government services are vital to improve the ease of business as this would make processes more convenient and quicker to meet requirements.
One interesting point brought up by Mr. Luz was that the country’s lawmakers have a natural inclination to create laws, and not remove contradictory ones. This concern was identified alongside his lined up repeal projects that were planned to develop the business set-up system in the Philippines. He stated that the process, along with the entire congress, should be made less complex for better public understanding and ultimately, for better public compliance.
The forum ended with a Q&A segment where Mr. Luz also got a few good suggestions from the GPCCI Members which they believe would help the Council in their objective.
Overall, the economic forum was successful a successful venue to inform the guests on how the National Competitiveness Council assists in easing business operations in the Philippines. It goes without saying that both the guests and the speaker were able to learn from each other through their collective experiences and their lobbying potential.