Raid The Fridge: EASE

On October 31, 2017, the World Bank released their latest “Doing Business” report, which ranked 190 economies after investigating 10 business regulations that affect small and medium-sized companies based in one particular city i.e. the largest business city of an economy.

The goal of the Doing Business report is to provide governments a set of objective (and actionable!) data in designing relevant business regulatory practices by looking at current regulations: those that enhance a business activity vs. those that constrain it.

So how did the Philippines perform?
The country’s rank dropped to No. 113 in 2017, down 14 places from its No. 99 rank the previous year.

What do we do now?
We invite the #startupPH community — founders, investors, developers/engineers, data scientists, product people, etc; corporates, the academe, and other institutions actively collaborating with startups; entrepreneurs passionate about tech startups and innovation — to join us for an evening of conversation on Ease of Doing Business at Raid The Fridge, June 28th (Thursday), 6:30 pm, at 55 Paseo de Roxas, Makati City.

Kicking off the conversation is our guest speaker GUILLERMO “BILL” M. LUZ — he will walk us through the gameplan for competitiveness: our wins and losses since 2013 (where we ranked 138th/185 economies globally; and 8th/nine economies in ASEAN); the reforms undertaken by the Task Force on Ease of Doing Business in the last five years, and what our current ranking means to entrepreneurs.

Is help needed?
Yes. In fact, an announcement will be made for a “Doing Business” project aimed at re-engineering government processes to integrate more online and streamlined services. And they want the #startupPH community to get involved.

So come over and help us empty our fridge: make new friends, reconnect with old friends, and swap #startupPH stories over beers!

See you,
The Kickstart Team

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ABOUT THE SPEAKER

Guillermo M. Luz
Private Sector Co-Chairman (outgoing), National Competitiveness Council
Chief Resilience Officer and Advisor, Philippine Disaster Resilience Foundation

Bill Luz, until recently, was the private sector co-chairman of the National Competitiveness Council, a public-private body that developed the strategy for the long-term competitiveness of the Philippines through policy reforms, project implementation, institution-building, and performance monitoring.

He is an associate director at Ayala Corporation, the holding company of one of the oldest and largest business groups in the Philippines, with business activities in property development, banking and financial services, telecommunications, water infrastructure development and management, automotive dealership and distribution, business process outsourcing, electronics manufacturing solutions, and power and renewable energy, infrastructure, health, and education.

He is Chief Resilience Officer and Advisor of the Philippine Disaster Resilience Foundation (PDRF), the country's major private sector coordinator for disaster risk reduction management, and was in charge of the establishment of its Emergency Operations Center.

He is an Honorary Advisor of the Asia New Zealand Foundation and member of the Advisory Group, ASEAN Leaders Programme of Common Purpose.

He was the Lead Coordinator for the Private Sector of the APEC National Organizing Council (APEC-NOC), the government agency in charge of preparations for the Philippines Chairmanship of APEC in 2015. He also served as the Chief Operating Officer of the APEC 2015 CEO Summit Host Committee.

Prior to his current posts, he was Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of Ayala Foundation, Executive Director of the Makati Business Club, Managing Director of Knowledge Institute, and Secretary-General of NAMFREL.

HELPFUL READINGS
- Via Inquirer, Nov 2017: “PH ranking in ease of doing business slips from 99th to 113th [http://business.inquirer.net/239704/philippines-ranking-world-bank-doing-business-2018]
- Via DoingBusiness.org: "Doing Business: Measuring Business Regulations - Economy Rankings [http://www.doingbusiness.org/rankings]

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OUR RAID THE FRIDGE PROGRAM FLOW
6:30pm - Registration/doors are opened to guests. Networking over beers kicks-off | 7:50pm - Guests are notified that talks will begin shortly and are encouraged to go indoors where program is held | 8:00pm - Start of program | 9:30pm - End of program and networking resumes | 11:00pm - Networking ends, guests leave the venue.