QUEZON City and Antipolo City emerged as the most competitive cities in the National Competitiveness Council’s (NCC) Fifth Regional Annual Regional Competitiveness Summit and Awards Ceremony held on Wednesday.
Quezon City was able to maintain its claim as the Most Competitive Highly Urbanized City, having received the citation last year. Antipolo, meanwhile, was recognized as the Most Competitive component City, taking the crown from last year’s winner, Naga City.
Naga came in second in the Component-Cities category, followed by Tagum City.
Manila ranked second in the category of Highly Urbanized Cities, followed by President Duterte’s home city, Davao.
Makati—the second-most competitive highly urbanized city last year—failed to secure a spot in the top 3. Among provinces, Rizal was lauded as the most competitive; in the first- to second-class municipalities, Cainta bagged the citation, and among third- to sixth-class municipalities Baler, Aurora, was recognized as the most competitive.
These competitiveness results were gathered from the NCC’s Cities and Municipalities Competitiveness Index scores.
The index is an annual ranking of Philippine cities and municipalities developed by the NCC, together with the Regional Competitiveness Committees (RCCs) and the United States Agency for International Development.
The NCC takes into consideration economic dynamism, governance efficiency and infrastructure in scoring cities and municipalities in its Competitiveness Index.