LGU competitiveness crucial to Philippines global ranking – DTI

CEBU, Philippines - The competitiveness of local governments must also be looked into as the country aims for higher position in the global competitiveness rankings, a trade official said.

Speaking at the recent National Competitiveness Council forum in Cebu City, Nelia Navarro, Cebu provincial director of the Department of Trade and Industry, said there is a need to identify specific indicators of development and competitiveness at the local level that can be linked with the country's global competitiveness rankings.

"Such local competitiveness indicators would also show the economic and business strengths and weaknesses of the LGUs and allow for local level comparisons," Navarro said.

These indicators, she added, could be useful tools to identify ways needed to help lagging LGUs catch-up.

NCC created in 2013 the Cities and Municipalities Competitiveness Index that assesses localities based on 28 indicators grouped under three areas: economic dynamism, government efficiency and infrastructure. 

The third CMCI released in July this year ranked 142 cities and 978 municipalities out of a total of 1,634 local governments in the Philippines.

In the 2015 CMCI, Cebu City was ranked third from seventh last year. The City of Manila topped the list while Makati City ranked second. Cebu Province, on the other hand, also was recognized as the third most competitive province in the country.

The CMCI is a score card that potential investors may use to assess the performance of a locality.

Navarro said: "Establishing a local competitiveness indicator system would help in channeling resources to areas where these are most needed."

"As we continue to improve our monitoring system for capturing the overall global competitiveness ranking of the country... we also need to look at how local governments are working to improve local competitiveness," the DTI official also said.

Aside from assessing competitiveness, NCC's CMCI also identifies areas for improvement and cooperation; looks into policy making, development planning and investment promotion; helps businesses to decide where to put up shop; and serves as data for further research.

Moreover, the Philippines further improved its competitiveness ranking in the latest World Economic Forum annual global competitiveness report 2014-2015. The country ranked 47th out of 140 economies assessed this year, up from 52nd out of 144 economies in the previous report.

The WEF report assessed economies based on 12 pillars of competitiveness that boost productivity.

The report noted that inefficient government bureaucracy topped the most problematic factors for doing business in the Philippines. It was then followed by inadequate supply of infrastructure, corruption, complexity of tax regulations and tax rates.

"Our lowest-ranked indicators include the number of procedures to start a business (139th), number of days to start a business (119th), redundancy costs (124th) and imports as a percentage of GDP (119th)," NCC said in a report.

NCC, however, also cited that the Philippines remains 5th out of the other nine South East Asian Nations.

"The Philippines is the third biggest gainer for this year after Vietnam and Lao PDR. The country has been the most improved economy in terms of competitiveness rankings in ASEAN and across the world," NCC said. (FREEMAN)