The Department of Trade and Industry XI, in coordination with the National Competitiveness Council, is now in the fifth round of the Cities and Municipalities Competitiveness Index or dubbed as CMCI 2017.
As an annual competitiveness ranking for all the local government units (LGUs) of the Philippines, CMCI 2017 carries a greater challenge for LGUs, since it will have an additional pillar – the Resiliency Pillar.
The previous rounds of the index only required three pillars, namely: Economic Dynamism, Government Efficiency, and Infrastructure with only 28 indicators. However, the Resiliency Pillar alone already has 10 indicators plus the two additional indicators to the Economic Dynamism making it to 40 indicators for this year’s round of the index.
The Resiliency Pillar of the CMCI embodies the capacities of the LGUs to continuously function, so that the people living and working in that specific community, particularly the poor and vulnerable, survive and thrive no matter what disasters they will encounter.
The earlier three pillars vents Economic Dynamism on productivity as it matches the output of the local economy with local resources; Government Efficiency as the quality and reliability of government services and government support for effective and sustainable productive expansion; and Infrastructure as the physical building blocks that connect, expand, and sustain a locality and its surroundings to enable the provision of goods and services.
Davao City prime movers on CMCI 2017 toughened the process of their data collection as one of the contenders of this year’s Highly Urbanized Cities Category. The City’s Planning, Research and Development Group exerted their utmost efforts to be among the top performing LGUs nationwide.
Last year, Davao City was named as 5th Most Competitive Highly Urbanized City in the Philippines. Tagum City was also ranked as the 9th Most Competitive Component City in the Philippines.
DTI-Davao Regional Director Maria Belenda Q. Ambi is optimistic that a number of LGUs from the region will still be among the country’s most competitive cities and municipalities.
“DTI-XI conducted an in-depth caravan for BPLS and CMCI at the provincial level, highlighting the new Business Permist and Licensing System (BPLS) reforms/JMC 2016 and CMCI’s new pillar and indicators,” Ambi said.
Winners and ranking of this year’s CMCI will be announced on August 16 during the Regional Competitiveness Committees (RCCs) Summit at the Philippine International Convention Center (PICC), Roxas Boulevard, Manila, Philippines.