THE government has committed to provide the latest pertinent data to survey institutions to ensure the country’s international competitiveness rankings will capture the real picture.

This was contained in a memorandum of agreement (MOA) on the Provision of Statistical Data forged by concerned government agencies and private groups.

The MOA was the offshoot of a series of meetings and workshops conducted by the National Computer Center (NCC) involving survey institutions and government agencies. At the meetings, the survey institutions raised the issue of difficulty in acquiring latest and accurate statistical information from data sources.

 “The said problem affects the results of the survey, thus giving an inexact picture of the competitiveness landscape of our country,” the NCC said.

With this, the NCC assigned the different competitiveness indicators to the concerned agencies.

The MOA also assigned the roles and responsibilities of the NCC, the government and private agencies involved in collecting statistical information, and the survey institutions, which analyze the data and use them in competitiveness reports.

Those who signed the MOA were Undersecretary and Bureau of Investment Managing Head Cristino L. Panlilio (for Bureau of Investment, Department of Trade and Industry  and NCC), Secretary Florencio Abad (Department of Budget and Management), Secretary Mar Roxas (Department of Transportation and Communications), Secretary Jose Rene Almendras (Department of Energy), Commissioner Kim Jacinto-Henares (Bureau of Internal Revenue), Roberto Tan (Bureau of the Treasury), Commissioner Teresita Manzala (Professional Regulation Commission), Chairman Zenaida Cruz-Ducut (Energy Regulatory Commission), Carmelita Ericta (National Statistic Office), and Director General Ricardo Blancaflor (IPO). From private sector is Hans Sicat of Philippine Stock Exchange.