Quezon City ranked as the Overall Most Competitive highly urbanized city in the country followed by Manila and Pasay while Naga, Legazpi and Antipolo, in that order, were named as the Overall Most Competitive component cities in the latest 10th Cities and Municipalities Competitiveness Index (CMCI).
The winners were unveiled and recognized during the 10TH Cities and Municipalities Competitiveness Summit on Thursday, Oct. 20, at the Philippine International Convention Center.
Taytay, Baliwag, and Cainta, in that order, ranked as Overall Most Competitive first to second class municipalities while the towns of Initao, Baler and Sulop were proclaimed Overall Most Competitive for the 3rd to 4th Class Municipalities. For the fifth to sixth class municipalities category, the towns of San Lorenzo, Catarman and Corella were named as top awardees.
Among the provinces, Rizal won as the Most Competitive Province followed by Cavite and Davao del Norte.
There were 1,631 local government units (LGUs) that participated in this year’s CMCI from 1,607 last year short only by three LGUs based on the total number of 1,634 cities in municipalities across the country.
The CMCI has five pillars for its total competitiveness scoring system. These are Economic Dynamism; Government Efficiency; Infrastructure; Resilience; and Innovation. The last pillar, the latest pillar addition, focuses on creating, developing, and implementing new products, services, or processes toward improved efficiency, effectiveness, and competitive advantage.
As such, there were also separate ranking for the most competitive LGUs and cities under each pillar and category.
Trade and Industry Secretary Alfredo E. Pascual said in a speech at the summit said that the CMCI program recognizes cities and municipalities that have “excelled through the leadership of their empowered and dedicated local chief executives. Some of whom are here with us. The work of cities, municipalities, and their leaders contribute to the overall competitiveness of our country.”
He explained that the CMCI program addresses the lack of a nationwide standardized system for compiling local indicators.
Still, he said, local government units (LGUs) can assess their relative level of competitiveness and derive insights for their local policymaking and planning.
As part of the CMCI initiatives, he said, the regional Competitiveness Committees were also established. These committees regularly track the local competitiveness indicators and formulate programs to strengthen competitiveness and investment promotion across their respective regions.
Pascual further said that the CMCI is constantly evolving to be a timely and relevant indicator of local competitiveness.
Recently, he said, DTI has concluded the first phase of the Big Data Project, where experts reviewed the Program’s processes and indicators relative to global and regional economic activities. The big data initiative sought to determine the fitness of existing indicators, as well as assets timely relevant, and readily available information, in measuring local competitiveness.
Through the CMCI Data Analytics Platform, created two years ago, LGUs have been given access to encode on the Local Data Capture Sheet (LDCS), the data on their performance.
“Through the efforts of DTI regional competitiveness committees, we can push through data validation and organize today’s summit based on the results of these analytics,” he said.
The World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Index defines competitiveness as the productivity of an economy. This goes along with the efficiency of that economy’s institutions and policies—examined through human capital, enabling environment, markets, and innovation ecosystem.
The IMD World Competitiveness Center said that measuring a nation’s competitiveness involves looking at factors that enable an environment to create more value for a nation’s enterprises, and ultimately, for its people. The Center’s annual global report includes as factors economic performance, government and business efficiency, and infrastructure, among others.
The Philippines climbed four spots to 48th place out of 63 economies in 2022 from 52nd out of 64 economies in 2021. This was the Philippines’ highest ranking in two years.
However, Pascual noted that the country continued to lag behind its neighbors in the region placing 13th among 14 Asia-Pacific economies in the index.
“We know the Philippines possesses the right institutions and innovation capabilities that allow micro and macro-economic activities to function effectively. However, our country still has a vast potential for improvement and we have to work together to achieve a higher ranking for our country compared to our neighbors in the region,” Pascual added.
Amid the pandemic destructions, Pascual said, the government is pursuing continuous improvement for local competitiveness. “Our efforts must be rooted in collective initiatives as we ascertain or attain excellence through the competitiveness pillars that I will go through now.”
On the economic front, he said, the prime concern must be to ensure that LGU resources are aligned for economic growth and recovery by reducing regulatory burdens.
“Through streamlining and digitalization of processes, we enhance the investment attractiveness of your respective localities as well as the whole country,” he added.
As chair of the Anti-Red Tape Authority or ARTA, Pascual supports the streamlining of government operations. “Let us work together to digitize your data and digitalize your processes towards egovernance. The ideal digitalization of LGUs is to roll out a common standard digital system
across cities and municipalities. I hope that you in the LGUs will accept this standardization because this will facilitate the ease of doing business in our country and increase the level of our competitiveness,” he added.
He concluded by telling the LGUs, “You play a vital role as we strive for continuous development in our nation's competitiveness.”