By Zeus Legaspi
The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) has released the latest Cities and Municipalities Competitiveness Index (CMCI) during the National Competitiveness Council (NCC)’s 8th Regional Summit on Wednesday.
Among 33 competing highly urbanized cities (HUC), Quezon City was chosen as the most competitive HUC for 2019 followed by Manila and Davao City in second and third places, respectively.
CALABARZON provinces bagged the top three spots for the most competitive provinces with Rizal, Laguna, and Cavite in first to third places, respectively, outranking 73 other provinces in the list.
Antipolo ranked first in most competitive component cities. Cainta was hailed as the most competitive 1st to 2nd class municipality while Mambajao ranked first in the 3rd to 6th class municipality category.
The rankings of cities and municipalities were based on the sum of their scores on economic dynamism, government efficiency, infrastructure, and resiliency. Meanwhile, provincial rankings are based on population and revenue of the overall scores of cities and municipalities under a province.
“The CMCI aims to build local competitiveness and strategically map out and track the competitiveness of cities and municipalities through a set of competitiveness indicators”, DTI Undersecretary Rafaelita Aldaba said.
“This is intended to empower Local Government Units (LGUs) to measure and compare their current level of competitiveness against global standards, identify areas for improvement and growth, and introduce reforms and initiatives to boost local competitiveness”, she added.
The CMCI is an annual ranking of Philippine cities and municipalities developed by the Department of Trade and Industry and National Competitiveness Council with the assistance of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).