ARTA plans localized Doing Business report

MANILA, Philippines — The Anti-Red Tape Authority (ARTA) plans to roll out a localized Doing Business report, as well as a report card survey for government agencies as part of the push for improved delivery of services.

ARTA director general Jeremiah Belgica said the Ease of Doing Business (EODB) and Anti-Red Tape Advisory Council, which includes the Department of Trade and Industry, Department of Information and Communications Technology, Department of Finance, Department of the Interior and Local Government, and private sector representatives, would meet today to discuss steps to be taken after the World Bank announced it would discontinue its flagship Doing Business report.

“Part of our plans will be looking into a possible localized Doing Business ranking for our cities and municipalities to nurture healthy competition and recognize good initiatives of local government units,” Belgica said.

“Moreover, we aim to roll out the report card survey by the end of this year to effectively measure the compliance of government agencies to the EODB law,” he said.

The World Bank’s Doing Business report ranks economies by looking at regulations affecting the business environment.

The multilateral lender decided to cease the Doing Business report following an investigation on data irregularities.

Belgica said improving the country’s competitiveness ranking in the World Bank’s annual survey has been one of the motivations for the government to strengthen the old ARTA law and to continue initiatives to improve ease of doing business.

In the Doing Business 2020 report, the Philippines moved up to 95th place out of 190 economies from 124th in the previous year.

Despite the World Bank’s latest decision to halt the publication of the report, Belgica said the ARTA would continue improving services and pursue plans to further streamline and automate processes in the government.

“Even without rankings and scorings, we will continue to bolster our efforts to ensure that business processing with the government is easy, fast, and reliable,” he said.

Given the coronavirus pandemic, he said improving customer experience through faster and more efficient services is of utmost importance to ensure the safety of the transacting public.

“Rest assured, ARTA will continue championing ease of doing business initiatives because the ultimate measure of success in the Philippines will always be the satisfaction and convenience of the people,” he said.