Tuguegarao, Cagayan City – The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) Region 2 and the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) Region 2 held the 5^th Cagayan Valley Regional Competitiveness Forum and 2021 Cities and Municipalities Competitiveness Index Survey Awarding Ceremony, with the overarching theme of “Nurturing local economic development and competitiveness through innovation”, at Hotel Carmelita on 11 February 2022.

On one hand, the forum component aimed to inspire and encourage local government units (LGUs) to raise the country’s national competitiveness by discussing on local economic development and competitiveness through innovation. On the other hand, the awarding ceremony aimed to recognize the region’s local government units that exhibited exemplary performance in the aspect of competitiveness-particularly in the pillars of economic dynamism, government efficiency, infrastructure, and resiliency. Spotlight was centered to the 2021 Most Competitive LGUs in Region 02 that ranked among the Top 30 Most Competitive LGUs in the Philippines in their respective categories; and the Most Improved LGUs in the region that jumped more than a hundred notches from their 2020 CMCI ranking. 

 “We are optimistic that despite the challenges that we have encountered in the previous years—the pandemic and other natural calamities— our collaborative efforts as local government units, government agencies, academe and industry will conquer the impact of these challenges, and our quest for a stronger, competitive, and innovative local economic climate for Cagayan Valley will soon prosper,” said RD Leah Pulido Ocampo, DTI Region 2.

Engr. Marlo L. Iringan, CESO III, Undersecretary for Local Government, DILG, and Keynote Speaker, also emphasized the importance of working together not just for CMCI, but in the positive actions they may cause in the future generation.

“Together with the DTI and relevant regional and national government agencies, these challenges that we are all in, keep us motivated in moving forward and commit to work together towards the advancement, not only in CMCI ranking but also with main objective: to facilitate the local expansion of the industries, local economies, and labor opportunities that will benefit our children and other people.”

The following are the awardees in the different categories: For the Provincial Category, Quirino Province leaped on the 28^th spot for the for the Most Competitive LGS while for the Component Cities category, Tuguegarao City, City of Ilagan and Santiago City garnered the following rankings:

Meanwhile, the municipality of Echague in Isabela under 1^st-2^nd Class Municipalities category, Rizal and Abulug in Cagayan, and Saguday in Quirino together with Basco Batanes under the 5th-6th Class Municipalities landed with the following rankings:

Under the Most Improved LGU category, three LGUs from Region 2 garnered the following rankings:

♦ Date of Release: 9 February 2022