Tuesday, August 29, 2006
Butuan second to last; Oro fifth in cities list
By Ben Serrano
Caraga Correspondent
BUTUAN CITY -- Two Caraga cities, Butuan and Bislig, ranked second to the last in the latest Philippine Cities Competitiveness Ranking Project in the mid-sized and small-sized city categories respectively.
An official document revealed recently on this subject was released by the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) to local media and government information officers in the region.
But its not all bad news because another Caraga Region City, Surigao landed in the number eight slot on small-cities category in the RP Cities Competitiveness Project whose survey was done last year.
According to the DTI sponsored Media Forum over the weekend Agusan del Sur is on the way to economic boom after a report from the National Food Authority (NFA) said the region has a surplus of rice supply. It is said to be groomed as the "Agriculture and Timber Corridor" of Caraga region.
Agusan del Sur and Surigao del Sur are the only provinces in Caraga Region, which has a surplus of rice production and other agricultural products annually.
The Philippine Cities Competitiveness Ranking Project survey is patterned after the World Competitiveness Yearbook, which utilizes more than 300 indicators/criteria from national statistics and executive opinion surveys.
The drivers or criteria of the City Competitiveness project are Human Resources and Training, Infrastructure, Cost Competitiveness, Responsiveness of Local Government, Dynamism of Local Economy, Quality of Life and Linkages and Accessibility.
Best practices
Under the auspices of the Asian Institute of Management (AIM), United States Agency for International Development (Usaid), The Asia Foundation and GTZ, the project objective is to motivate local governments to change local mentality and provide feedback mechanisms for business community to local governments.
It is also intended to provide assessment tools to pinpoint and analyze best practices in local economic management and build capacity of all local government units (LGUs) by applying competitiveness lessons from other LGUs.
In the overall ranking in the small cities category, non Metro-cities with population less than 200,000 residents, Surigao City ranked number eight in most competitive list with cities of San Fernando in La Union, Legaspi and Tagbilaran occupied the first, second and third ranks respectively.
The cities of Koronadal and Tagum ranked number seven and ninth in the most competitive cities' list under small cities category.
Another Caraga Region city, Bislig ranked number 32 among 33 evaluated cities in the entire country under the small cities category. Number 33 slot is occupied by Marawi in Lanao del Sur.
Butuan City ranked number 13 among 14 cities in the entire country evaluated. Occupying number 14 is Tarlac City in Luzon.
In big cities or Metro Cities category, cities of Makati and Davao tied in the number one slot. Others named in the most competitive list arranged from number two to ten ranking were, Las Pinas, Marikina, Muntinglupa, Pasig, Cebu, Mandaluyong, Mandaue, Manila, Quezon, Lapu-Lapu and Pasay.
In the midsized cities category ranking from number 1 to 14 were the cities of Bacolod, Batangas, Iloilo, San Fernando in Pampanga, Cagayan de Oro, Angeles, Iligan, Zamboanga, Calamba, Lipa, General Santos, Baguio, Cabanatuan, Butuan and Tarlac.
Cagayan de Oro City ranked number five on midsize cites category in Pinoy Cities on the Rise Project.
(August 29, 2006 issue)
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