PH rank in Innovation 2019

Philippines break into the ranks of innovation achievers - report

Dennis Valdez

BusinessWorld

26 July 2019

THE PHILIPPINES has moved up 19 spots to 54^th out of 129 economies from last year on an annual list that tracks their performance in terms of innovation, with the country breaking into the ranks of 17 others that “outperform” in this regard relative to gross domestic product.

The Global Innovation Index 2019 (GII) — prepared by Cornell University, INSEAD and the World Intellectual Property Organization — said the Philippines improved in almost all the metrics which the report used, namely: in Institutions, Human Capital and Research, Infrastructure, Business Sophistication, Knowledge and Technology Outputs and Creative Outputs.

“In the Business sophistication (32^nd) pillar, the Philippines improves in almost all the indicators related to Innovation linkages and gains top ranks in High-tech imports (5^th) and Research talent (6^th),” the report read.

“In Knowledge and technology outputs (31^st), the data for indicator High-tech net exports became available this year and the country ranks 1^st,” it added.

“Four other indicators rank in the top 10: Firms offering formal training (9^th), productivity growth (10^th), ICT services exports (8^th), and Creative goods exports (8^th).”

At the same time, the Philippines was found weak in terms of ease of starting a business, ease of getting credit, expenditure on education, global R&D companies, scientific and technical articles and new businesses.

“While some changes to the GII model explain a small part of this leap, newly available metrics give a more thorough assessment of the country’s innovation performance, which itself shows some signs of progress,” the report said of the Philippines’ performance this year.

Compared to its regional peers, the report said the Philippines showed “relatively good scores” particularly in trademarks, females employed with advanced degrees, high-tech imports and creative goods exports.

The report noted that, on the whole, the country was one of the most improved on this year’s list, propelling it to break into the “innovation achievers” cluster.

“The Philippines appears for the first time in the group of innovation achievers. It scores above average in all innovation dimensions, with the exception of Market sophistication, relative to its lower middle-income peers,” the report said.

“It has remarkable performance in Knowledge diffusion and Knowledge absorption, not only relative to its income group and geographic region, but also relative to all other economies assessed in the GII.”

Reacting to the report, Trade Secretary Ramon M. Lopez said in a statement: “This is great news for our nation and our innovation ecosystem as a whole. It recognizes the efforts of the various government agencies… in advancing innovation among our people and MSMEs (micro, small, medium enterprises), creating an innovative culture, as well as in building linkages with academe and industry.”

He added that he expects further improvement in the country’s rank after the recent signing of Republic Act (RA) No. 11293 or the Philippine Innovation Act and RA No. 11337 or the Innovative Startup Act.

Malacañang also welcomed results of the latest report, saying in a statement that it commends the departments and agencies that helped achieve the improvement in the country’s global rank. “May this good news further motivate them in creating an environment that nurtures innovation and creates business opportunities as we become one of the fastest growing economies in the globe,” Presidential Spokesperson Salvador S. Panelo was quoted as saying.

The global top 10 consist of, in descending order: Switzerland (also top last year), Sweden (from 3^rd), the United States (from 6^th), the Netherlands (from 2^nd), the United Kingdom (from 4^th), Finland (from 7^th), Denmark (from 8^th), Singapore (8^th from 5^th), Germany (flat from 9^th last year) and Israel (from 11^th).

Seven of the 15 economies in the South East Asia, East Asia and Oceania group rank in the top 25, namely: Singapore, South Korea (11^th), Hong Kong (13^th), China (14^th), Japan (15^th), Australia (22^nd) and New Zealand (25^th).

Besides Singapore (8^th) and the Philippines (54^th), the other Southeast Asian countries on the list performed as follows: Malaysia (35^th), Vietnam (42^nd), Thailand (43^rd), Brunei (71^st), Indonesia (85^th) and Cambodia (98^th).

India, to which the Philippines is frequently compared when it comes to business process outsourcing, placed 52^nd in this year’s report. — Denise A. Valdez

PH among the best place to live

Duterte's Philippines Among The Best Places To Live And Work, Ahead Of China

Panos Mourdoukoutas| Forbes.com

06 July 2019

Philippines has been ranked 24^th best place to live and work, just behind the US, which ranked 23rd, and ahead of China, which ranked 26th.

That’s according to the 2019 HSBC Expat’s annual survey, which is based on responses from more than 18,000 expats across 163 markets on three metrics: living, career opportunity, and family life.

The Philippines jumped up the rankings from 26th place last year.

That may come as a surprise to some for a couple of reasons. One of them is that the Philippines has a reputation for sending its own people overseas in droves rather than attracting foreigners who want to live and work there.

The other reason is that the country is mired in violence, which has taken a huge human toll.

Apparently, that isn’t what foreign expats are concerned about. They find it easy to relocate to a country of friendly people and a reasonable cost of living. “With its tropical climate and steadily growing economy, the Philippines is quickly becoming one of the most popular expat destinations in Southeast Asia, “ says the report.

Indeed, the Philippines economy has been booming in recent years. The Philippines’ per-capita GDP was last recorded at an all-time high of 3,063 U.S. dollars in 2018, according to Tradingeconomics.com. And it’s expected to reach $3,277 by 2020. That’s well above the average of $1,653.98 for the period 1960-2018.

Filipinos are doing better in recent years when per-capita GDP is adjusted by purchasing power parity (PPP). That measure, too, reached a record 7,599.19 U.S. dollars in 2018, well above the average of $4969.71 for the period 1990-2018.

Statistic	2015	2017	2018	2020 (projected)
Per Capita GDP	$2615.7	$2891.36	$3,063	$3,277
Per Capita GDP PPP	6874.4	7599.19	7599.19	--
GDP Annual Growth Rate	6.5%	7.2%	5.60	--

Meanwhile, a recent McKinsey Global Institute (MGI) study places the Philippines among the few emerging market economies that are well-prepared to achieve sustained growth over the next decade.

That's thanks to a rise in gross fixed-capital formation (investment).

Still, the Philippines’ per-capita GDP is equivalent to 23% of the world's average, which makes Filipinos poor.

Meanwhile, the results of the expats survey should be interpreted with extreme caution. People surveyed are usually more affluent and better educated than the average immigrant, and they are on short assignments. This means that an overseas assignment may be seen as an “adventure.”

And the Philippines is a good place for that, better than China, as other surveys confirm.

PH universities in world ranking

4 Philippine universities among world’s top 1000



Marjaleen Ramos
Manila Bulletin
20 June 2019

Four universities in the Philippines made it to the QS World University Rankings 2020.

The rankings, released on Wednesday, showed that University of the Philippines (UP), the country’s flagship state university, moved up from 384th last year to 356th.

356. University of the Philippines 

Ateneo de Manila University (ADMU) ranked to 601-650th spot from 651-700th last year.

601-650. Ateneo de Manila University

 De La Salle University (DLSU) and University of Santo Tomas (UST) both retained their 801-1000th spots.

801-1000. De la Salle University

801-1000. University of Sto. Tomas

The QS ranks the top 1,000 universities in the world according to academic reputation, employer reputation, faculty/student ratio, citations per faculty, international faculty ratio, and international student ratio.

The top five in the list were Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford University, Harvard University, California Institute of Technology, University of Oxford and University of Chicago.

In Asia, the top school was Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in Singapore, which beat out the National University of Singapore (NUS) which dropped to second place.

Tsinghua University was third, Peking University fourth and University of Tokyo fifth.

PH back in competition

Philippines’ competitiveness rebounds in 2019 — IMD

Ian Nicolas Cigaral
Philippine Star
29 May 2019

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines’ competitiveness improved in 2019 on the back of rosy economic performance last year and higher labor force, according to a research group of Switzerland-based business school International Institute for Management Development.

This Dec. 20, 2018 photo shows workers cleaning a panel of the building in UN Avenue, Manila. 

The Philippines’ competitiveness improved this year on the back of rosy economic performance 

last year and higher labor force, according to a research group of Switzerland-based business school International Institute for Management Development.The STAR/Krizjohn Rosales

The Philippines ranked 46th out of 63 economies tracked in IMD’s 2019 competitiveness report. This was higher than the Southeast Asian country’s previous ranking of 50th place in 2018.

Among 14 Asia-Pacific countries covered by the report, the Philippines placed at the 13th spot this year, unchanged from last year and just ahead of Mongolia and right behind India.

“This result was driven by a solid economic performance supported by sustained real [gross domestic product] growth (6.2% in 2018) and an increase in labour force and employment levels,” IMD said.

For its report, IMD said it evaluated “the extent to which a country fosters an environment where enterprises can achieve sustainable growth, generate jobs and, ultimately, increase welfare for its citizens.”

IMD looked into four factors — economic performance, infrastructure, government efficiency and business efficiency — in giving a final score for each country.

Broken down, the Philippines improved in the economic performance factor, placing 38th this year from 50th previously despite a decline in the international trade sub-factor. In terms of government efficiency, the Philippines climbed to 41th spot from 44th on the back of better institutional framework, business legislation and societal framework.

Under the business efficiency factor, the Philippines ranked 32nd from 38th mainly driven by better labor market and “attitudes and values.” Lastly, the Philippines jumped to 59th place from 60th in the infrastructure factor.

According to IMD, the Philippines needs to “speed up and sustain investments in physical infrastructure” and “sustain investor and consumer confidence.”

IMD then flagged the country’s “inadequate investment in human capital, poor digital competitiveness and future-readiness and persistent political risks.”

The rankings have been produced every year since 1989 by the IMD World Competitiveness Center.

This year, Singapore ranked as the world’s most competitive economy for the first time since 2010, knocking out the United States from the top spot to 3rd place amid higher fuel prices, weaker hi-tech exports and fluctuations in the value of the dollar.

Hong Kong held on to 2nd place, helped by a benign tax and business policy environment and access to business finance. Meanwhile, competitiveness across Europe struggled to gain ground this with most economies on the decline amid economic uncertainties.

“In a year of high uncertainty in global markets due to rapid changes in the international political landscape as well as trade relations, the quality of institutions seem to be the unifying element for increasing prosperity,” said IMD professor Arturo Bris.

“A strong institutional framework provides the stability for business to invest and innovate, ensuring a higher quality of life for citizens,” Bris added.

Filipino is Asia's sexiest accent

Filipino hailed as ‘sexiest accent’ in Asia 

Jan Milo Severo

Philstar.com

May 2, 2019

MANILA, Philippines — A travel and food website announced that Filipino is the sexiest accent in Asia and 21st sexiest accent in the world, according to its survey.

Big 7 Travel recently unveiled their survey results, Top 50 Sexiest Accents in the World, based on their readers’ opinion.

“Gentle and soft, the accents you’ll hear when in the Philippines are simply lovely,” the website described the Filipino language. 

New Zealand’s Kiwi was hailed as the world’s sexiest accent, followed by South African, Irish, Italian, Australian, Scottish, French, Spanish, South American and Brazilian Portuguese.

“To a novice ear, the New Zealand accent might sound just like the Australian accent, but Big 7 Travel readers disagree. The ‘Newzild’ dialect is outrageously charming,” Big 7 Travel wrote.

In the Asian ranking, the Philippines is followed by Vietnamese and Indian, placing 25th and 26th respectively. Japanese and Chinese, meanwhile, are in the 42nd and 43rd places respectively.
 

World's Happiness progress

Philippines is 12th in happiness progress

Mar Mangahas
Philippine Daily Inquirer
30 march 2019

The World Happiness Report 2019 (WHR), released last week, ranks the Philippines as No. 12 in the world—and new No. 1 in Southeast Asia—in change in life-evaluation between 2005-08 and 2016-18 (http://worldhappiness.report/ed/2019/).

Note that the period is a full decade, spanning most of the Arroyo period, all six years under Noynoy Aquino and the first two years under Duterte.  The beginning and ending numbers being compared are three-year averages.  Credit for the progress between the two points therefore goes mainly to the Aquino time and partially to the Duterte time.

Chapter 2 of WHR2019 is “Changing World Happiness”; I heartily agree that it is more valuable to examine time-trends than to engage in Miss Happiness contests.  Its measure is scaled from the worst possible life (zero) to the best possible life (10) that the people surveyed can imagine. 

This is Cantril’s ladder, after psychologist Hadley Cantril, who wrote “The Pattern of Human Concerns” (1965).  (Interestingly, the ladder allows computation of “inequality of happiness”—which is high in the Philippines—but that’s a topic for another piece.)

The progressives. The five top gainers in WHR2019 are: 1. Benin +1.34, 2. Nicaragua +1.26, 3. Bulgaria +1.17, 4. Latvia +1.16, and 5. Togo +1.08.  Between them and 12th place Philippines (+0.86) are 6. Congo (Brazzaville), 7. Sierra Leone, 8. Slovakia, 9. Ecuador, 10. Uzbekistan, and 11. Cameroon.

This list shows that low-status countries are capable of progress in happiness.  It is refreshing to stop touting Finland, Denmark and Norway as the “winners,” since, after all, they reached their current high status in happiness only after many decades of social development.

The backsliders. At the opposite end are the worst five losers: 132. Venezuela -1.94, 131. Syria -1.86, 130. Botswana -1.61, 129. India -1.14, and 128. Yemen -1.10.

Gaining or losing at least 1.0 in the Cantril ladder, over a decade, is quite significant. The rest of the worst 10 are: 127. Central African Republic, 126. Greece, 125. Tanzania, 124. Malawi, and 123. Rwanda.

Other notable losers are Spain, Italy, United States, France, Japan and Canada.  Thus, high-status countries are not immune to backsliding either.  Of the 132 countries with data for starting and ending periods, 64 gained, 42 lost, and 26 stayed put.

The Philippines’ three-year average ladder score improved by +0.86 from 2005-08, to reach 5.63 in 2016-18.  Other Southeast Asian gainers were Cambodia +0.64 (25th in the world); Indonesia +0.24 (57th); and Thailand +0.23 (59th).

On the other hand, Vietnam -0.22 (96th), Laos -0.36 (107th), Singapore -0.35 (109th) and Malaysia -0.70 (117th) all lost ground.  In our region, half rose and half fell.

Change in regional climbing leadership. In last year’s WHR2018, which considered changes from 2008-10 to 2015-17, it was Malaysia, at +0.73, that led the gainers in Southeast Asia, followed by the Philippines +0.72, Thailand +0.30, and Cambodia +0.19.

The losers at that point were Indonesia -0.16, Singapore -0.16, Vietnam -0.26, and Laos -0.42 (see “Track happiness over time, not space,” Opinion, 3/24/18).  Now, Indonesia is a progressive, and Malaysia is a backslider.

Change in ranking of status after climbing. Both WHR2018 and WHR2019 have ladder scores for 156 countries.  

A country’s ranking on the world ladder depends on its relative (not absolute) climbing performance. The Philippines rose in status from No. 71 in WHR2018 to No. 69 in WHR2019.

Singapore maintained its No. 34 status. Thailand fell from No. 46 to No. 52.  Malaysia plummeted from No. 35 to No. 80 and was overtaken by the Philippines.  

Indonesia rose from No. 96 to No. 92, Vietnam from No. 95 to No. 94, Laos from No. 110 to No. 105, and Cambodia from No. 120 to No. 109.