THE ANTI-RED Tape Authority (ARTA) will be working in “close coordination” with its counterpart-agency in Malaysia, the Malaysia Productivity Corporation (MPC), to learn from the latter’s successes in improving productivity and competitiveness.

“Malaysia, in the late ‘80s, was lagging behind the Philippines. Now, they’re almost a first-world country,” ARTA Officer-In-Charge and Deputy Director-General (DDG) Ernesto V. Perez said in a statement on Wednesday last week.

“The Philippines intends to learn from Malaysia’s journey in reducing red tape. [We] will be in close coordination with the Malaysia Productivity Corporation in doing so,” the office of Mr. Perez told BusinessWorld in separate phone message.

Mr. Perez recently attended dialogue and discussions in Malaysia organized by the World Bank and the MPC.

“The Authority, together with OIC-DDG, were able to gain insights on the good regulatory practices of Malaysia when it comes to the improving the productivity and competitiveness of the country,” his office said.

In his statement, Mr. Perez said the Philippines intends to adopt some of the best practices in regulatory governance from other countries.

Among these best practices is setting up a management system for ensuring regulatory quality.

“Learning from the experience of the Malaysia Productivity Corporation, there is an urgent need to establish the Regulatory Management System in the country to address regulatory quality for proposed regulations and excessive undue regulatory burden of existing regulations,” the agency said.

“We also need to streamline mechanisms to address investor grievances at the early stages for investment retention and expansion. ARTA, in coordination with the whole-of-government, needs to provide enabling conditions to facilitate ease of doing business and efficient government service delivery in the country.”

The anti-red tape body also noted that there are significant areas being considered by the business sector in terms of investment and reinvestment such as the “political stability and security as well as the legal and regulatory environment of the country.”

“Businesses are often discouraged to invest and reinvest when there are adverse regulatory changes, sudden arbitrary changes, breach of contract, expropriation, and abuse of authority in the country,” ARTA said.

“Having identified these, we are therefore guided in identifying the areas that we need to touch on in terms of crafting reforms and designing programs, gearing them towards the end goal of improving the business climate of the country.”

Malacañang announced last Friday President Rodrigo R. Duterte’s appointment of Jeremiah B. Belgica as ARTA director-general.

It took more than a year for the President to appoint an ARTA chief since he signed the Ease of Doing Business Law in May 2018.

With Mr. Belgica’s appointment, the implementing rules and regulations of the Ease of Doing Business Law can now be issued. — Arjay L. Balinbin

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