THE Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) must monitor the performance of their members in terms of protecting investors and paying taxes, according to a policy note released by the Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS).
This was among the recommendations in the the policy note titled "Performance of Apec economies in ease of doing business (EoDB)” authored by Asian Institute of Management and Policy Center economists Ronald U. Mendoza, Tristan A. Canare and former Philippine Economic Society President Alvin Ang.
The authors said that in light of the latest EoDB rankings which showed that 15 of the 21 Apec members dropped in ranking in protecting investors from 2010 to 2015, and eight for paying taxes.
"While Apec, as a whole, is performing well in the EoDB [Apec 2011 and 2012], performance across the group is highly variable. Some Apec economies are among the top performers in the world, while others are still lagging behind,” the authors said.
"Better-performing economies could provide support through knowledge transfer to lower-ranked ones. This would not be limited to the Apec summit but would be followed through on several occasions,” they added.
The authors also recommended that the Apec should follow through on these areas of doing business by sharing knowledge and best practices, as well as technology and workshops.
The economists suggested that representatives of better-performing Apec countries be allowed to observe the process being implemented in other lower-ranking countries and recommend improvements.
Further, the Apec must help promote sharing technology such as automation of submissions and processing of documents. The Apec, the authors also said, must conduct workshops on doing business for developing country members.
"Lower-ranked economies could start reforming those that are easiest to reform–changes that do not require amending laws that takes a long time to implement. Then, gradually proceed to the more complicated reforms,” the authors said.
The policy note also recommended that Apec countries that have registered lower performance in protecting investors and paying taxes in the EoDB rankings can study the possibility of creating a specialized agency that handles doing business improvement concerns.
The authors said this agency can be similar to the Philippines’s own National Competitiveness Council which includes representatives from the government, the private sector, academe and other stakeholders.
There are important coordination and governance challenges to be overcome in advancing these reforms notably in countries with a high degree of government decentralization.
In October 2014 the World Bank released the Ease of Doing Business 2015 report where the Philippines ranked 95th out of 189 countries. In the 2014 Ease of Doing Business, the country ranked 108 overall.
The doing business report has 10 indicators–starting a business, dealing with construction permits, getting electricity, registering property, getting credit, protecting minority investors, paying taxes, trading across borders, enforcing contracts and resolving insolvency.
This year, the Philippines ranked high, 16th out of 189, in getting electricity, and ranked 50th out of 189 in resolving insolvency.
Despite being ranked relatively high at 65th out of 189 in trading across borders, the World Bank noted that the imposition of the truck ban was having a reverse impact on the country’s performance in this indicator.
The change, the bank said, "was making it more difficult to do business” in the country. The truck ban, however, has recently been lifted by the city of Manila and this has improved the flow of goods nationwide.//
APEC told: Focus on investor protection and tax settlement
