THE Philippines must address the challenges faced by foreign firms to attract more investments to the country, economists said.
Enhancing government processes, education and skills training and improving labor and operational costs could be beneficial for the country in terms of foreign investments, BPI lead economist Jun Neri said in a briefing on Friday, June 23.
He said investors are looking at human capital when scouting for areas of development, he said.
“Investors are watching those closely kasi without human capital, very hard to really dedicate resources in a particular economy. Kailangan mo ng labor support and skills more so with artificial intelligence becoming a fad. Baka mahirapan tayo mag-compete if the robots and AI take over if we don’t have the skillset,” Neri said.
Investors also face the challenge of tedious government processes at the national and local levels.
“Even just getting permits from LGUs (local government units) to put up a factory or telco towers, etc. is really taking so long and the right of way for rail and for roads, and those things, also the bureaucracy, even our business efficiency scores were still at the bottom for 2023,” said BPI lead strategist Marco Javier.
But he noted these issues are actively being addressed by the National Economic and Development Authority, among others, by implementing measures to streamline processes, and by enforcing provisions under the government’s Philippine Development Plan (PDP) 2023 to 2028,
Javier added that another problem is the country’s high energy costs.
Neri also said there are other governance issues that needed to be fixed so it would not impact the country’s competitiveness compared to its ASEAN peers,
The Philippines fell to 52nd spot this year out of 64 economies from 48th in 2022 in the recent World Competitiveness Yearbook (WCY).
The index analyzes a country’s competitiveness based on several metrics across economic performance, government and business efficiency and infrastructure. (ABS-CBN News)
