SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT COMPETITIVENESS OF THE PHILIPPINES
A reaction paper
The trade performance in the Philippines has been continuously growing for the past decade, from 2002-2011, except for the world economic slump of 2009 (Figure 1). While this trend is not even close to the growth performance of our neighbours Malaysia, it provides an idea of how supply chain management (SCM) becomes more and more important in the economy. In this short report, the facts on SCM competitiveness of the Philippines are analysed based on data published by World Economic Forum on “Global Competitiveness Report 2012-2013” and “Global Enabling Trade Report 2012” and the report of Makati Business Club on “Need for Stronger Supply Chain”. At the latter part of this report, we look at the culture of the Filipino people and how this trickles down the supply chain.
Figure 1: Philippine External Trade over the years (source: MBC Research #106)
Data and Statistics on Philippines’ SCM Competitiveness
The Philippines has been more and more open to international trade over the years and supply chain management has been improving as well. While many of local businesses still have much to improve on their methods and technology, those involved in international trade are becoming more and more able to adapt the international best practices. Many of private entities push for better supply chain management either as internal improvement or as a requirement of doing business with other more advances companies.
However, looking at the entire supply chain, there are still bottlenecks and inefficiencies. And since this is a chain, the effects trickle to the overall supply chain performance as evidence by the competitiveness report of World Economic Forum and the Logistics Performance Index (LPI) of World Bank where the Philippines lag behind similar economies (Table 2).
In the research paper published by Makati Business Club, the