Ease of doing business: Are we ready?

The Philippines has made some improvements in its “ease of doing business” performance, but continues to lag behind most of its Asean neighbors, according to the latest World Bank Business Ready (B-Ready) report. While the World Bank covers 101 economies in 2025, up from 50 in 2024, the Philippines has largely maintained its relative position. We remain in the top 25 percent in terms of regulatory framework, around the midpoint in quality of public services, but in the bottom 20 percent in government efficiency. While individual scores have improved, our relative standing has not. In real terms, this means businesses continue to face the same delays, costs, and uncertainty.

For many years, the World Bank and the International Finance Corp. published the annual Ease of Doing Business (EODB) report. It measured the number of procedures, time, and cost a small- or medium-enterprise faced from starting a business until insolvency. Rankings covered 190 economies and became a widely accepted indicator of how efficiently governments translated policy intent into actual practice.

When the National Competitiveness Council (NCC) began monitoring EODB indicators in 2011, the Philippines ranked 148 out of 183 economies, firmly in the bottom third globally. Starting and operating a business was slow, fragmented, and expensive. The EODB data effectively quantified the friction costs created by red tape, overlapping mandates, inconsistent interpretation of rules, and weak coordination across government agencies.

Until 2018, before the NCC was replaced by the Anti-Red Tape Authority, we worked closely with agencies to simplify procedures across the 10 areas measured. These included:

Business entry–registering and starting operations of a new corporation

Business location–acquiring a business site through purchase, lease, or construction

Utility services–connection to electricity, water, and digital services

Labor–employment regulations affecting both firms and workers

Financial services–access to credit, collateral systems, and credit information

International trade–time and cost of trade in goods, services, and digital trade

Taxation–regulation, administration, and practical implementation of taxes

Dispute resolution–efficiency of resolving commercial disputes

Market competition–competition policy, procurement, and innovation rules

Business insolvency–liquidation or reorganization of failing firms

Reforms were incremental and often difficult, but by the final EODB report in 2020, the Philippines had improved its ranking to 95 out of 190 economies.

The EODB report was discontinued in 2020 and replaced by the B-Ready report in 2024. While the methodology was refined, the report still examines the same core processes, now assessed through three pillars: regulatory framework, quality of public services, and operational efficiency.

The 2025 B-Ready report, released on Dec. 29, 2025, evaluates these same areas. Within Asean, the Philippines shows mixed performance. We do relatively well in utilities, financial services, labor regulation, taxation, dispute resolution, and market competition. We perform moderately in trade and business locations. However, we rank last in business entry and perform poorly in business insolvency, even compared with less developed economies.

The clearest insight emerges at the pillar level. The Philippines ranks second in Asean and 26th globally in regulatory framework, reflecting the presence of laws and formal rules. We rank midrange in public services, which measures transparency and access to electricity, water, and telecommunications. But we rank last in Asean and 80th out of 101 economies in operational efficiency, which measures the time and cost required to complete procedures.

This gap between strong laws and weak execution is the country’s central competitiveness problem. Businesses are not discouraged by regulation per se, but by delays, duplication, and unpredictability.

This confirms what the business community has long observed. The Philippines does not lack laws or policies. It lacks consistent, effective implementation. When the NCC ran Project Repeal, we actively worked to simplify and remove redundant rules, streamline procedures, and reduce compliance costs, including contributing to major reforms such as the amendment of the Corporation Code.

That effort has since stalled. The B-Ready report provides strong evidence that it is time to revive Project Repeal, further streamline government processes, and seriously reduce red tape. Without real improvements in efficiency, gains on paper will not translate into meaningful progress for entrepreneurs, investors, and job creators.

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Guillermo M. Luz is a former cochair of the National Competitiveness Council.

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Business Matters is a project of the Makati Business Club (makatibusinessclub@mbc.com.ph).