Philippines

The Republic of the Philippines is in Southeastern Asia on an island chain between the Philippine Sea and the South China Sea just east of Vietnam. The Philippines is about the size of Arizona and covers an area of 300,000 sq. kilometers. The total population is 105.72 million and is growing at a rate of 1.84% with 48.8% living in urban areas. The capital of Manila has a population of 11.55 million with other main cities including Davao City (1.36 mil) and Cebu City (800,000). The people are governed by a republic and are predominately Roman Catholic. The primary national language is Filipino, but English is the language used in Government and Education. The local currency is the Philippine Peso.

The Philippines has an emerging economy that has grown steadily in the past decade. The Philippines is still lagging regional competitors economically and need to increase foreign trade and investment to sustain economic growth and improve poverty levels and living conditions. The Philippines’s main trade partners are the US, Japan, Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan, China, Malaysia, Thailand, Netherlands, South Korea, Germany, and Saudi Arabia. Its primary imports are electronic products, mineral fuels, machinery, and transport equipment, iron and steel, textile fabrics, grains, chemicals, and plastics. Exports include semiconductors and electronic products, transport equipment, garments, copper products, petroleum products, coconut oils, and fruits. The Philippines’s GDP (Purchasing Power Parity) is $431.3 billion and is growing at a real rate of 6.6% with an inflation rate of 5.68%. The Philippines ranked 138th out of 185 countries in the World Bank Group’s Ease of Doing Business Ranking.

Doing Business in the Philippines(2012)Click the links below for articles with more information on Franchising in the Philippines

Franchising Rides Waves of Economic Expansion in Asia and Pacific Rim(2007)

* CPI Score is published by Transparency International and relates to the perceptions of the degree of corruption as seen by business people and country analysts and ranges between 100 (highly clean) and 0 (highly corrupt).

**Ease of Doing Business Ranking is determined by the World Bank Group and is ranked out of a possible 185 countries. www.doingbusiness.org

Most recent statistics have been taken from the CIA World Factbook unless noted otherwise.