|
Saturday, February 18, 2006
AIM study data show city's weaknesses, strengths
CEBU CITY -- Mayor Tomas Osmeña's leadership was given an above average rating in the Asian Institue of Management (AIM) study, but the lack of transparency in government, congested roads, pollution and crime rate in Cebu City pulled its ratings down.
Even if it was not included in the top five competitive metro cities and AIM's list of 20 most viable business sites in the country, Mayor Tomas Osmeña believes the city still fared well in the Philippine Cities Competitiveness Ranking Project 2005.
Raw qualitative data of the AIM study highlighted the Cebu City Government's lack of transparency and public consultations, pollution and traffic management, which got a rating of below average.
The results also showed the strengths of the city, including tourism and the responsiveness of educational institutions to the needs of the industries.
Dr. Victorina Zosa, research director of the University of San Carlos (USC), told the mayor yesterday that as far as the qualitative data are concerned, Cebu City got above average ratings in some indicators.
But since AIM also based its study on quantitative data such as crime rate and actual cost of doing business here, its ratings in other indicators suffered.
Zosa and Osmeña blamed the low ratings on some indicators on the fact that two-thirds of the data gathered were based on perception of the study's respondents.
"I feel I have to accept some kind of responsibility when people feel the City Government is not transparent, but in what way? Even I try to make (Jonathan) Guardo transparent," the mayor said.
"But many of the things there are irrelevant and are not important to me. We really did not fair badly, it's just that in other cities they faired better. The difference can be attributed to the perception of the people," said Osmeña.
Zosa explained the data gathering process to the mayor yesterday after learning that he questioned the results of the study.
Cebu City was not included in the top 20 chosen cities since the top 20 covered only five metro cities, five medium-sized and 10 small-sized cities.
While it was not included in the top five list of competitive metro cities, Cebu City was included in the top 10, Zosa said.
"The mayor's leadership is the only above average indicator in the area of responsiveness of the LGUs' business needs. The city also has a high inclination towards ICT (information and communications technology) and this is where our advantage lies," Zosa said.
Cebu City ranked fourth among the 13 cities in the cost of doing business, 10th in the dynamism of local economy, first in linkages and accessibility, fourth in human resources and training, 12th in infrastructure, ninth in the responsiveness of LGU to business needs and eighth in the quality of life.
On the cost of doing business in the city, the informal fees or bribes collected from the transacting public was cited in the study, which got a below average rating.
On the quality of life, the mayor said that it would not be correct to use crime statistics as a measure, since they may not be reflective of the true peace and order condition.
He pointed out that crime rate here may be high since people report crimes, which may not be the case in other cities.
Zosa clarified that the AIM study used other indicators, apart from the results of USC's data gathering.
USC, a partner agency of AIM, administered the questionnaires to the 130 respondents in the city. (Sun.Star Cebu)
(February 18, 2006 issue)
Write letter to the editor. Click here.
Join the Sun.Star message board. Click here. |
|
|
|
[return to top]
[home]
|
|
Metro Manila police on alert v. coup, protests