Calapan City was named the 5th Overall Most Competitive component city, while five other municipalities in MIMAROPA bagged several awards during the recently concluded 10th Cities and Municipalities Competitiveness Index (CMCI).
Among the 5th to 6th class municipalities, Looc in Occidental Mindoro ranked third in the economic dynamism pillar. For the 3rd to 4th class municipalities, Buenavista in Marinduque and San Fernando in Romblon, in that order, were ranked fourth and fifth in the resiliency pillar, Mogpog in Marinduque was proclaimed as the 10th most competitive municipality in the innovation pillar. Boac in Marinduque was also recognized as the ninth most competitive among 1st to 2nd class municipalities under the innovation pillar.
Calapan City was also proclaimed as the most competitive component city in terms of the government efficiency and resiliency pillars. Moreover, the city was also named the fourth most competitive component city in the infrastructure sector.
The local government units were recognized during the 10th Cities and Municipalities Competitiveness Summit on October 20, 2022, at the Philippine International Convention Center.
CMCI is an annual ranking of Philippine cities and municipalities organized by the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), and the National Competitiveness Council through the Regional Competitiveness Committees (RCCs) with the assistance of the United States Agency for International Development.
According to the CMCI website, rankings of Cities and Municipalities are based on the sum of their scores on five Pillars: Economic Dynamism, Government Efficiency, Infrastructure, Resiliency, and Innovation. The scoring framework pillars were integrated using the above-mentioned pillars: (1) Economic Dynamism matches the output and productivity of the local economy with the local resources, (2) Government Efficiency refers to the quality and reliability of government services and government support for effective and sustainable productive expansion, (3) Infrastructure pertains to the physical assets that connect, expand, and sustain a locality and its surroundings to enable provision of goods and services, (4) Resiliency applies to the capacity of a locality to build systems that can absorb change and disturbance and being able to adapt to such changes, and (5) Innovation refers to the ability of a locality to harness its creative potential to improve or sustain current levels of productivity.
DTI MIMAROPA Regional Director Joel B. Valera said in an interview during the summit that the local government units are at the center of economic growth, “a responsive government, adhering to the five pillars used by CMCI’s framework, is vital to make a serious dent in the factors that restrict economic growth and social development.” ♦
Date of Release: 4 November 2022