Koronadal City – The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) through its Competitiveness Bureau has recognized nine (9) local government units (LGUs) in Region 12 as among the best performing LGUs of the Philippines in the 2021 Cities and Municipalities Competitiveness Index (CMCI) during the online 9th Regional Competitiveness Summit on Tuesday, 14 December 2021.
The city of General Santos received three citations for ranking tenth as a highly urbanized city under the economic dynamism and government efficiency pillars, and as the top 2 most improved highly urbanized city.
Economic dynamism as a pillar measures the activities of LGUs that create a stable expansion of business and industries and higher employment; while, government efficiency looks at the quality and reliability of government services with focus on effective and sustainable productive expansion.
South Cotabato is the lone province of Region 12 to be awarded as the top 6 most competitive province in the country.
Under class 1 and 2 municipalities, Polomolok ranked number 4 under for economic dynamism pillar, while three municipalities, namely: Midsayap, Isulan, and Kabacan ranked 5th, 6th, and 9th respectively for government efficiency. Polomolok and Isulan, dubbed as the overall most competitive class 1 and 2 municipalities, landed the 8th and 9th spots.
The city of Koronadal was hailed as the top 4 most resilient LGU under the component cities category, while the municipalities of Kabacan and Malungon landed 6th and 9th for the most resilient class 1 and 2 municipalities. Under this pillar, the capacity of the LGUs to facilitate business and industries to create jobs, raise productivity, and increase the income of citizens over time despite the shocks and stresses they encounter are measured.
The city of Cotabato ranked as the top 9 component city on government efficiency. The CMCI is an annual ranking of the cities and municipalities in the Philippines developed by the National Competitiveness Council (NCC) with the assistance of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) to stimulate friendly competition among LGUs. The program encourages LGUs to gather and submit data that are used to measure their performance on four pillars: economic dynamism, government efficiency, infrastructure, and resiliency. Jude Constantine S. Jaugan, regional director of DTI-12 and chair of the Regional Competitiveness Coordinating Committee (RC3), congratulated the winning LGUs and took note of the hundred percent participation of the region’s 50 LGUs and 4 provinces.
“We are happy to note that since 2013 when the CMCI was launched, the LGUs of Region 12 have consistently made it to the Top 10 Ranking be it in the overall most competitive or in one of the performance-measure pillars,” added Dir. Jaugan. With his congratulatory message, Jaugan also challenged the LGUs to continue in their efforts to increase their ranking for next year’s CMCI, “We hope that the LGUs, business, and private sector will not settle on your laurels but will push through with more initiatives to bring impactful and enduring change to the people of Region 12.” ♦
Date of Release: 20 December 2021