The Department of Trade and Industry Region 4-A commends the competitive cities, municipalities, and provinces in the CALABARZON region, bagging 25 out of 75 or one-third of the awards in the recently concluded 7th Regional Competitiveness Summit on October 24, 2019 at the Philippine International Convention Center, Pasay City.

For this year, 1,518 local government units participated in the Cities and Municipalities Competitiveness Index (CMCI)—an annual ranking of Philippine cities and municipalities developed by the National Competitiveness Council through the Regional Competitiveness Committees (RCCs) with the assistance of the United States Agency for International Development.

“Eighty-four (84) LGUs in CALABARZON have shown improvement in their competitive ranking this 2019 compared to the previous year. We are happy that more LGUs are realizing the significance of the CMCI program,” said DTI CALABARZON Director Marilou Q. Toledo.

The ranking was based on the four convergent pillars: 1) Economic Dynamism is usually associated with activities that create stable expansion of business and industries and higher employment; 2) Government Efficiency refers to the quality and reliability of government services and government support for effective and sustainable productive expansion; 3) Infrastructure refers to the physical building blocks that connect, expand, and sustain a locality and its surroundings to enable the provision of goods and services; and 4) Resiliency is the capacity of a locality to facilitate businesses and industries to create jobs, raise productivity, and increase the incomes of citizens over time despite of the shocks and stresses it encounters.

The Province of Rizal remains undefeated for the Most Competitive Province in the country for four consecutive years. The CALABARZON Region dominated this category as Laguna and Cavite ranked second and third, respectively.

In the component cities, Antipolo, Rizal topped the Overall Competitiveness ranking, Calamba, Laguna as second, and Sta. Rosa, Laguna as third. General Trias, Cavite was declared as Top 1 in Economic Dynamism, followed by Calamba, Laguna as Top 2 and Batangas City, Batangas as Top 3. In terms of Government Efficiency, Antipolo, Rizal achieved the top spot and Sta. Rosa, Laguna ranked third. In Resilience, Antipolo, Rizal was ranked first again and then ranked second in terms of Infrastructure.

For the 1st to 2nd Class Municipalities, Cainta, Rizal topped the Overall Competitiveness ranking followed by Taytay, Rizal as second. Cainta, Rizal was also ranked third in Economic Dynamism. In terms of Government Efficiency, Cainta, Rizal got the first place, Taytay, Rizal on the second, and Silang, Cavite on the third. In Infrastructure, Cainta, Rizal was second and Taytay, Rizal was third. In Resilience, Binangonan, Rizal got the second place and San Mateo, Rizal for the third place.

For the 3rd to 6th Class Municipalities, Taal, Batangas ranked second in terms of Government Efficiency and Pagsanjan, Laguna was also second in terms of Resilience.♦

Date of Release: 6 November 2019