LUCENA CITY, Quezon—Rizal province emerged as the top-ranking province in the Philippines last year, followed by Cavite, South Cotabato, Laguna and North Cotabato.
This was revealed by Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) Region 4A Director Marilou Toledo, in the yearly ranking for 74 of the 81 provinces nationwide based on indicators, such as economic dynamism, government efficiency and infrastructure.
Quezon province was ranked 34th last year.
This was revealed during the overview presented by the Regional Competitiveness Council (RCC) at the Reorientation/Workshop for Quezon Province on the 2017 Cities and Municipalities Competitiveness Index held at Bulwagang Kalilayan here on March 10.
For highly urbanized cities, Lucena was at 25th, while Quezon City was on top of the heap, followed by Makati, Manila and Pasig, all in Metro Manila, and Davao City rounding up the top 5.
Also in Quezon province, Infanta bagged the first overall most competitive local government unit (LGU) for third- to sixth-class municipalities and Pagbilao for most improved LGU for first- to second-class municipalities.
Aside from Toledo, National Economic and Development Authority Region 4A Director Luis Banua, Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) director for the National Capital Region Rosalinda Bautista and PSA Region 4A Director Charito Armonia led the reorientation/workshop, which gathered various municipal planning and development officers and other representatives of various LGUs of the province.
Pablito Budoy of the DTI-Quezon said the ranking simply aims to show the level of competitiveness of the LGUs for investment and economic prospects.
Toledo urged the participants to do right in filling up the required data on various indicators for the ranking competitiveness of various LGUs.
“We want to know the ranking of our cities and municipalities at the provincial level for investment purposes and the data we provide will undergo validation,” Toledo told participants, adding the Philippines itself is being ranked in the international level.
The Philippines was ranked 99th of the 190 economies doing business globally, below six other Asean countries, the latest Global Competitiveness Report Card (GCRC) said.
The report said Singapore ranked No. 2 from No. 1 last year, followed by Malaysia ranking 23rd (18th last year); Thailand, 46th (49th last year); Vietnam, 82nd (90th last year); Brunei, 72nd (84th last year); and Indonesia, 91st (109th last year), on various indicators that include starting a business, dealing with construction permits, getting electricity, registering property, getting credit, protecting investors, paying taxes, trading across borders, enforcing contracts and resolving insolvency.
The Philippines ranked 103rd last year and got an upgrade score (2011-2017) on such indicators as dealing with construction permits (+71), getting electricity (+32), getting credits (+10), paying taxes (+11) and resolving insolvency (+97).
It got downgrades on the same period on such indicators as starting business (-15), registering property (-10), trading across borders (-34), enforcing contracts (-18) and protecting minority investors (-5).
Last year the Philippines also ranked 70th on the economic freedom index, 101st on corruption perception index, 57th on global competitiveness index, 64th on global enabling trade index, 74th on travel and tourism report, 74th on global innovation index, 77th on global information technology report, 54th on fragile states index, 7th on global gender gap report, 42nd on world competitiveness report and 71st on logistics performance index.
Economic dynamism means the size of the local economy as measured through business registrations, capital revenue and permits; growth of the local economy; compliant to safety of business; capacity to generate employment, cost of living, cost of doing business, financial deepening and productivity.
Government efficiency covers capacity of health services, capacity of schools, security, business registrations efficiency, presence of investment promotions unit, compliance to national directives, ratio of LGU collected tax to LGU revenues, most competitive LGU awardee and social protection.
Infrastructure covers existing road network, availability of basic utilities, number of public transportation vehicles, education infrastructures, health infrastructure, annual investment in infrastructure by the LGU, number of Department of Tourism-accredited tourist accomodations, connection to information and communication technology and number of automated teller machines.
Quezon Gov. David Suarez issued Executive Order 2 on January 19 organizing the Quezon Provincial Competitiveness Committee and providing for its functionality. It is chaired by the governor, cochaired by the provincial administrator and members, which include the Provincial Planning and Development Coordinator, Department of the Interior and Local Government-Quezon, DTI-Quezon, PSA-Quezon, Southern Luzon State University and the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry-Quezon.
Image credits: John Bello
1 comment
Infanta should maintain its competetiveness in order to attract more investors especially in tourism real estate,retail,transport and agriculture. Infanta can be a counter magnet to Metro Manila in attracting talents, tourist and investors.