The Philippines may not be a very competitive place, but boy is it friendly. In the Heritage Foundation’s 2012 Index of Economic Freedom, the Philippines improved its standing slightly, ranking 107 out of 179 countries. That rank puts the Philippines solidly in the category of “mostly unfree,” five places behind Cambodia and eight rungs ahead of Indonesia. Vietnam, the current darling of investment analysts, sits at 136.
The Philippines became the only Southeast Asian country last week to primarily crowdsource a nation branding campaign. The long-awaited campaign is intended to increase visibility internationally for the Philippines as an attractive tourist destination, and boost tourist arrivals. The “It’s More Fun in the Philippines” tagline is meant to communicate “what the Philippines (truly) is” according to Tourism secretary Ramon R. Jimenez, Jr.
Our third quarter findings at CBRE show that vacancy rates of Prime and Grade A buildings in Makati are declining and rental rates continue to increase as supply of office space tightens in the metro. Vacancy rate is now at 4.23%, the lowest since the third quarter of 2008’s 4.38%.
The Philippines ranks at the very bottom—where it is tied with Bangladesh—of a recent survey of IT competitiveness in R&D. This means less R&D takes place in the Philippines (0.0) than in Indonesia (0.1), Sri Lanka (0.1), and Vietnam (0.2).
Deep-pocketed investors are again in a frenzied fight to fund Silicon Valley Internet startups on the back of LinkedIn’s successful IPO, Facebook’s surprisingly sustainable rapid growth internationally, and Twitter’s increasing popularity. Investors are anxious.
The Philippines is more competitive this year—for the first time in several years—according to the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) Global Competitiveness Report (GCR) 2011-2012 released last week.
Should the Philippines leverage the personal brands of globally successful Filipinos to enhance its country brand?
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If you want to properly understand the history of banking in the Philippines, it would do you good to realize that in this country "business is born, and flourishes or fails, not so much in the market place as in the halls of the legislature or in the administrative offices of the government."
