It is a great challenge for the CALABARZON Region (composed of Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal, and Quezon) to maintain getting one-third of the total awards on the Cities and Municipalities Competitiveness Index (CMCI) given by the National Competitiveness Committee. This year, the Regional Competitiveness Committee of Region 4-A exerted their full effort to inspire all the Local Government Units to input comprehensive data on their Local Data Capture Sheet to gain competitive scores.

For the second year in a row, CALABARZON received most of the awards given at the 5th Annual Regional Competitiveness Summit held at the Philippine International Convention Center, Pasay City last August 16, 2017. The region has reaped the fruits of its labor by gaining twenty-three (23) out of seventy-five (75) awards.

On the CMCI Ranking, Rizal topped the Most Competitive Province category while Cavite placed third.

For the Economic Dynamism under 1st to 2nd Class Municipalities, Cainta, Rizal took the first rank, Taytay, Rizal on the second, and Sto. Tomas, Batangas on the third. For the Component Cities category under the Economic Dynamism, General Trias, Cavite ranked first.

For the Government Efficiency pillar, Cardona, Rizal ranked first, and Baras, Rizal ranked third on the 3rd to 6th Class category. On the 1st to 2nd Class category, Cainta, Rizal got first place and Taytay, Rizal for third place. For the component cities, Antipolo City, Rizal positioned on the third rank.

Rizal Province was the big winner, showing all its competitiveness on the Infrastructure Pillar by winning all the top 3 places under the 1st to 2nd Class category. Taytay, Rizal achieved the Top 1, followed by Cainta and Angono respectively. On the component cities, Antipolo City, Rizal got the first place among other LGUs.

On the New Pillar, which is Resiliency, Cainta, Rizal topped on the 1st to 2nd Class category, and Carmona, Cavite placed on the third rank. General Trias, Cavite garnered its second award in the ceremony as being the 3rd place under the Component Cities category.

To see who among the LGUs have competed aggressively on all the Pillars, the NCC gave the Overall Competitiveness Award to the LGUs under the four categories. On the 1st to 2nd Class category, Rizal Province got all the three awards. Cainta as being the Most Competitive, Taytay on the second, and Angono on the third. Under the Component Cities category, Antipolo City, Rizal was the Most Competitive.

Aside from these citations, NCC also gave awards to some LGUs who have shown a lot of improvement on all the Pillars. Awardees on this category are the LGUs who have climbed several notches from their previous rank. Rizal, Laguna received third place under the 3rd to 6th Class Municipalities.