Thursday, October 29, 2015

Business Bureaucracy 10, WB's Doing Business 2016 Report

The World Bank (WB) recently released its Doing Business (DB) 2016 Report. Before discussing it, here are two previous DB 2010 and 2015 Reports.

In DB 2009 Report, the Philippines ranked 141st out of 183 countries covered. In the DB 2010 Report, below, the country ranked 144th/183. The main bottlenecks are in (a) starting a business, and (b) closing a business. Relatively good rank in (a) trading across borders, and (b) registering property.


Last year's DB 2015 Report, the Philippines ranked 95th out of 189 countries with an overall distance to frontier (DTF) score of 62.08. Bottlenecks in (a) starting a business, and (b) protecting minority investors; good ranks in (a) getting electricity, and (b) trading across borders.


This year, DB 2016 Report, the PH slipped 8 positions and went down to global rank of 103rd out of the same 189 countries.


Ok, the 2016 Report shows that business bureaucracies in the Philippines have worsened compared to the previous year. But compared to the previous administration, based on DB 2009 and  2010 Reports (PH global rank of 141st and 144th, respectively), current ranking is better. Fine, but it is something that we cannot really be proud of. Why would PH bureaucrats, local and national, continue to impose lots of permits, taxes and fees, to people who create jobs, who expand the production of goods and services in the country?

Entrepreneurship and job creation is not a crime. Heavy bureaucratism is, because it contributes to higher unemployment, higher corruption, and higher prices of goods and services. Which tend to affect the poor more than  the  rich and middle class. BIG Government, its size, bureaucracies and taxes, must shrink.
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