Diokno hopes Ease of Doing Biz bill signed by end-March ‘18

Budget and Management Secretary Benjamin Diokno is optimistic that the proposed Ease of Doing Business bill, which has been discussed in the Bicameral Conference Committee, will be signed into law before the end of the first quarter this year. (PNA photo)

MANILA – Budget and Management Secretary Benjamin Diokno is optimistic that the proposed Ease of Doing Business bill, which has been discussed in the Bicameral Conference Committee, will be signed into law before the end of the first quarter this year.

During the start of the two-day Open Government and Participatory Governance Regional Dialogue for Luzon Cluster-1 in Quezon City Tuesday, Diokno said the Senate version of the measure had been ratified and lawmakers were just awaiting the ratified version of the House of Representatives for it to be submitted to the President.

“I would expect before the end of March pirmado na po ng Presidente (I would expect that before the end of March the President has signed it),” he said.

Once signed into law, the measure will amend the Anti-Red Tape Act of 2007 as it sets shorter processing time for application for business permits and will require fewer number of signatories, among others.

President Rodrigo R. Duterte has included this measure as among his administration’s priority bills to improve domestic business environment and encourage more foreign investments.

Diokno told the Philippine News Agency (PNA) in an interview that the proposed measure would help improve the country’s ranking on Ease of Doing Business report annually done by the World Bank.

In the 2018 report, the county’s ranking slipped to 113th  from last year’s 99th position. A total of 190 countries were included in the study.

The countries are assessed based on 10 indicators, with scores ranging from zero to 100 and with zero being the lowest and 100 being the frontier.

For reforms implemented in 2017, the Philippines received a Distance to Frontier (DTF) score of 58.74 from the previous year’s 58.32.

However, the average DTF across the East Asia and the Pacific is 62.7.

Diokno is hopeful that signing into law of the Ease of Doing Business measure will help the Philippines improve its ranking in the annual report.

He, however, pointed out that actual turnout still depends on how other countries also perform.