LEGISLATIVE and tax reforms are needed to drive trade and attract foreign investments for the long-term development in the country, a top official of DHL Express Philippines said.

DHL Express Philippines Country Manager Nigel Lockett said that there are still significant untapped opportunities for the country to expand its international trade.

"Given the geographical size of the country, the Philippines has a higher share of their business domestically but this also means that they have especially large untapped opportunities to grow its international flows," Lockett said to The Manila Times via email.

He added that the country is strategically positioned to link important markets across regions, emphasizing the need to enhance infrastructure to attain diverse connectivity.

"In fact, the Philippine economy has continued to show resilience and is among the fastest growing in the region," Lockett said. He added that the country has abundant natural resources and a skilled workforce, which gives the Philippines the potential to become a regional hub for smart and sustainable manufacturing, and services.

However, Lockett still sees the need for key reforms in legislation and taxation, noting that these are important to promoting trade and securing foreign investments for sustainable growth.

"Adopting reforms on the ease of doing business could attract more strategic investments and maintain Philippine's competitiveness in comparison to other regional markets," said Lockett.

In the 2024 edition of the DHL Connectedness Index, the Philippines' ranking in a globalization index slipped to 65th out of 181 countries as of 2022, down seven notches from 58th in 2017.

The change in the Philippines' overall score — 52.1 out of 100 from 52.4 five years earlier — was marginal, indicating that other countries had made larger gains.

"One factor may be the relatively slower recovery of tourism in the East Asia and Pacific region, as compared to other parts of the world, which affects both people flows and services trade," said Steven Altman, Senior Research Scholar and Director of the DHL Initiative on Globalization at New York University Stern's Center for the Future of Management.

Altman added that one of the drivers of recent fluctuations in the country's performance was how the country's trade and people flows were affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Moreover, Lockett said that the enhancement of DHL Express' operations and service excellence remains a priority through investments in new facilities and personnel whenever necessary, citing their retail footprint as the top agenda every year.