MANILA, Philippines — President Rodrigo Duterte on Monday night ordered a review of all government contracts with companies and other countries — a development that business leaders said they would closely watch amid uncertainty over the directive’s effect on investor confidence. “We hope international best practice will be observed and the Philippine low ranking of 151st of 190 countries for contracts in Ease of Doing Business will improve,” Forbes added. “We will be very interested in the conclusions of this review and hope they will not discourage private sector partnership with government,” he continued. Sought for comment, Union Bank chief economist Ruben Carlo Asuncion said “it will be business as usual” despite the review. “Unless, of course, if there would be flagged and probably suspicious findings and/or results from the pending contracts reviews,” he added.

Source: Philippine Star April 03, 2019 08:51 UTC