The Department of Trade and Industry-Cordillera Administrative Region (DTI-CAR) and the Department of Interior and Local Government-CAR recognized the region’s seventy seven local government units (LGUs) that composed 100% participation to the 2017 cities and Municipalities Competitiveness Index (CMCI). This came after the National Competitiveness Council (NCC) named the most competitive LGUs in the 5th Regional Competitiveness Summit held earlier at the PICC in Pasay City that cited Bauko, Mountain Province for garnering 2nd Place for Government Efficiency under the 3rd to 6th Class Municipalities Category next to Cardona, Rizal.
During the 4th Regional CMCI Recognition Ceremony held at Albergo Hotel in Baguio City, Marina Saldaña, Officer-in-Charge, Business Systems Process Improvement Division, Competitiveness Bureau of DTI cited the importance of the competitiveness ranking of cities and municipalities in the country for local units to know where they need to improve based on data gathered. Rankings of cities and municipalities according to Saldaña are based on the sum of their scores on: Economic Dynamism, Government Efficiency, Infrastructure and Resiliency. Saldana also stressed that building local competitiveness is critical to enhancing long-term national competitiveness which serves as the main index for investments and doing business.
DTI-CAR Regional Director Myrna Pablo, the Chair of the Regional Competitiveness Committee recalled that in 2013, only 4 CAR LGUs participated in the CMCI and with this year’s full participation of the 77 LGUs, Cordillera executives can now learn from the best practices of competitive cities and municipalities through benchmarking and sharing of best practices.
Mayor Mauricio G. Domogan during his welcome remarks congratulated the ranking LGUs and challenged those lagging behind to prioritize and improve their investment programs and speed up their business processes.
Mayor Abraham Akilit of Bauko, Mountain Province and other CAR municipal mayors and representatives that placed in the Top 20 Nationwide Major Awards received plaques of recognition from DTI and DILG. Sharing the limelight with Bauko are the towns of Buguias of Benguet for ranking 17th, Lamut of Ifugao for ranking 18th under the 3rd to 6th Class Municipalities while the city of Baguio made it as the 11th nationwide under the Highly Urbanized Cities Category.
For the Government Efficiency category, Baguio ranked 7th out of the 33 cities under the Highly Urbanized Cities Category and Tadian, Mountain province ranked 16th out of the 853 LGUs in the 3rd to 6th Class Municipalities while. Under Economic Dynamism pillar, La Trinidad, Benguet ranked 20th out of the 489 towns in the 1st to 2nd Class Municipalities Category and Baguio placed 8th under the under the Highly Urbanized Cities Category.
Both Baguio City and Lamut, Ifugao ranked 20th under the Highly Urbanized Cities and 3rd to 6th Class Municipalities Category respectively of the RCC’s Resiliency Category. Special awards were likewise presented to LGUs for Best in Documentation, Best Competitiveness Point Person, Most Improved LGU and Top 3 Provinces in CAR. Municipalities that were ranked at top 21 to 25 for the 3rd to 6th Class Municipalities like Buguias of Benguet, Sta, Marcela of Apayao, Bontoc of Mountain Province, and Lamut of Ifugao were also recognized during the RCC recognition.