Monday, August 18, 2008 Gensan is most competitive mid-sized city By Nelson C. Bagaforo
GENERAL Santos City scored big in the Philippine Cities Competitiveness Ranking Program (PCCRP), a flagship research undertaking of the AIM Policy Center, which seeks to identify the best cities in the Philippines in which to live, work and operate a business.
This is the third time that the Tuna Capital was cited by the Asia Institute of Management Policy Center -- the first time was in the year 2000 when it was the Most Competitive City in the Philippines and two years later, when it was ranked as the Most Competitive Mid-Sized City.
Seven mid-sized cities were cited in the survey, two from Mindanao, including Gensan, and the rest from Luzon. These are the cities of Olongapo, Cabanatuan, Lucena, Olongapo, San Pablo, Tagum and Tarlac.
The awarding ceremony was held last July 4 at the Grand Ballroom of the Intercontinental Hotel in Makati City.
City Mayor Pedro Acharon Jr. received the award.
The awardees for the Most Competitive Metro Cities in alphabetical order are the cities of Davao, Makati, Manila, Marikina, Lapu-lapu and Quezon City.
And the top performing cities from among 45 small-sized cities were (in alphabetical order): Bayawan, Calapan, Calbayog, Dagupan, Dipolog, Laoag, San Fernando (La Union), Malaybalay, Naga, Surigao, Tagbilaran and Tuguegarao.
Top three of each category were honored during the awards night, the highlight of the presentation of the official results of the PCCRP, a biennial independent study conducted throughout the archipelago, which aims to rank cities on the basis of economic performance and responsiveness to business enterprise.
For its 2007 round, the survey covered 90 cities, and rated them on the basis of the following competitiveness drivers: dynamism of local economy, cost of doing business, infrastructure, human resources and training, responsiveness of LGU to business needs and quality of life.
The cities were classified into metro, mid-sized and small. About 25 cities were chosen as top performing based on the criteria. Among the 25, four cities are in the National Capital Region, 11 in Luzon, four in the Visayas, and six in Mindanao.
Gensan ranked first in infrastructure, but has to improve its socio-economic development programs to improve the General's quality of life, where the city ranked low at number 16.
In other competitiveness drivers, the city ranked third in human resources training, fourth in cost of doing business and dynamism of local economy and 7th in responsiveness of LGUs to business needs.
Launched in 1999, the program envisions at promoting national competitiveness by encouraging healthy competition among highly urbanized and emerging cities, emphasizing the crucial roles of small and medium enterprises as the backbone of local development.
By gathering and compiling strategic data and providing focused analyses of the results, the PCCRP also seeks to cultivate competitive industries, promote healthy communities and maximize the economic potentials of the cities.
This latest survey was launched and completed in collaboration with the German Technical Cooperation (GTZ), the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the International Labour Organization (ILO), SM Investments Inc., and the Petron Corporation.
