Misamis Oriental #2 Most Competitive Province, Cagayan de Oro #6 Most Competitive Highly Urbanized City in 3rd Regional Competitiveness Summit
Northern Mindanao’s top performing province and city scored big in the 3rd Regional Competitiveness Summit held Thursday, 16 July 2015 at the Philippine International Convention Center (PICC) Reception Hall. Over 1,000 delegates composed of Local Chief Executives, representatives from the LGUs, and delegates from National Government Agencies, the Academe, and the Private Sector.
3rd Regional Competitiveness Summit
Misamis Oriental was ranked the 2nd Most Competitive Province in the newly created category for provinces while Cagayan de Oro ranked 6th in the newly created Highly Urbanized City Category.
“I am happy Misamis Oriental is adjudged as the 2nd Most Competitive Province of the country,” said Misamis Oriental Vice Gov. Joey Pelaez in a text message to this paper. “This is again a challenge for the leadership of the province to work harder to maintain our competitive edge.”
Davao del Sur in Region 11 was adjudged the Most Competitive Province with Cebu province coming in at 3rd. Meantime, Manila was ranked the #1 Most Competitive City in the new Highly Urbanized Category, followed by Makati at #2 and Cebu at #3.
The Regional Competitiveness Summit, the Cities and Municipalities Competitiveness Index (CMCI) measures competitiveness at the local government level using 28 indicators grouped into three equally-weighted pillars: Economic Dynamism, Government Efficiency, and Infrastructure. Scores on each pillar were combined to form the overall score used to rank cities and municipalities.
Cagayan de Oro ranked second in government efficiency (up from 5th in 2014), fifth in infrastructure (from 2nd in 2014) and 20th in economic dynamism (from 9th in 2014).
Since 2013, the National Competitiveness Council (NCC), through the Cities and Municipalities Competitiveness Index, has been advocating building more competitive local government units in order to raise the overall competitiveness of the country. Through public-private collaboration, NCC has successfully engaged LGUs to participate in the index which presents economic development and competitiveness indicators at the local government levels.
The Cities and Municipalities Competitiveness Index program encourages LGUs to gather and submit data that would measure their performance on Economic Dynamism, Government Efficiency, and Infrastructure.
Each pillar has indicators which provide a more detailed view of the economic status of the locality. There are 8 indicators for Economic Dynamism and 10 indicators for both Government Efficiency and Infrastructure, totaling 28 indicators. The data submitted by the Local Government Units, through the assistance of a partner Academe and the Regional Competitiveness Committees, is used for the final scoring and ranking.
In 2013, 122 cities and 163 municipalities participated in the index when Cagayan de Oro ranked #1 as the Most Competitive City. This increased to 136 cities and 399 municipalities in 2014 when Cagayan de Oro ranked No. 2 after Makati. This year, 2015, there were 142 cities and 978 municipalities participating in the index or a total of 1,120 participants out of 1,634 LGUs in the country.
This means 68% of the LGUs have been covered this year versus the 17% starting coverage in 2013. The increasing coverage of the index signifies a higher level of awareness on the importance of being measured based on the three pillars and a stronger commitment to improve LGU performance based on the resulting ranking.
Previously, the NCC conferred awards for the Top 3 Overall Most Competitive Cities and Municipalities and also recognized the Top 3 Most Competitive Cities and Municipalities per pillar (Economic Dynamism, Government Efficiency, and Infrastructure).
To more accurately gauge the competitiveness of the localities, NCC introduced new award categories during the summit: 3rd to 6th Class Municipalities, 1st to 2nd Class Municipalities, Component Cities, and Highly Urbanized Cities.
Besides the awarding ceremony, the CMCI website containing the data provided by the LGUs and infographics was also launched during the same occasion. The data can be used by potential investors in deciding where to locate their businesses.
More importantly, the data can serve as a tool for the LGUs to evaluate the competitiveness of their locality and take the steps to improve performance and attractiveness for investments.
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