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Saturday, March 25, 2006
Bribery, hassle ‘hurt’ Cebu City competitiveness
By Linette C. Ramos
CEBU CITY -- Although businesses in Cebu City are highly profitable, bribes at government offices and inefficient business permit processing at City Hall, among other factors, pulled its competitiveness ranking down.
Cebu City will have to improve its infrastructure and utilities and cut down on government bureaucracy if it wants to make the city more competitive in business, Asian Institute of Management (AIM) professors said Friday.
Despite the wide range of infrastructure projects in the city, economic activities and high tourism arrivals, Cebu City did not make it to the top five metro cities in the AIM Policy Center's Philippine Cities Competitiveness Ranking Project (PCCRP) 2005.
When the survey results were released last month, Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña asked how the ranking was done and why the City ranked low in some indicators, including infrastructure.
"The infrastructure itself is not the issue here. The issue is, is it the infrastructure that the businessmen want? There are projects in Cebu City and I'm sure the projects the City Government planned for are important projects, but I guess the question is, relative to business competitiveness, does this infrastructure in fact contribute to that?" professor Mario Lopez said.
Mid-performing
Cebu City ranked only 12th in infrastructure, 10th in dynamism of the local economy, ninth in responsiveness of the local government unit (LGU) to business needs and eighth in the quality of life.
It ranked first in linkages and accessibility because of the presence of international ports, and fourth in cost of doing business and human resources and training.
Overall, Cebu City was classified as a mid-performing city. It got an average competitiveness rating in four drivers and above-average competitiveness rating in three drivers.
PCCRP 2005 listed Davao, Las Piñas, Makati, Marikina, and Muntinlupa as the most competitive metro cities in the country.
Other metro cities covered by the study are Lapu-Lapu, Mandaue, Mandaluyong, Manila, Pasay, Pasig, and Quezon.
Informal fees or bribes in government offices, poor waste management, unreliable power supply, dirty roads and open spaces were among the city's weaknesses that were identified in the study.
Value creation
Lopez urged the City Government to sustain its strengths and improve on its weaknesses if it wants to become more competitive.
He also suggested that the city improves its linkage and relationship with the neighboring cities and towns to further promote tourism.
The collection of bribes in local and National Government agencies must also be stopped immediately, he added.
"Looking at its weaknesses, while somebody tries to justify the bribes, if it continues and becomes higher, at some point some businessmen will say `Wag na lang, we'll just stay at our level', then the businesses will stagnate," Lopez warned.
The PCCRP 2005 was meant to gauge the competitiveness of 65 cities as a place for living and doing business.
Specifically, the study measured the cities' ability "to create and maintain an environment that sustains more value creation for its enterprises and more prosperity for its people."
Drivers
Some 130 local businessmen from different industries were interviewed for the competitiveness ranking survey, using seven drivers of competitiveness.
These drivers are: cost of doing business, dynamism of the local economy, linkages and accessibility, human resources and training, infrastructure, LGU responsiveness to business needs and quality of life.
The study used 23 quantitative indicators (including local inflation, cost of power, commercial space rentals, minimum wage and crime rates) and 45 perception-based indicators (such as air quality, online LGU services, leadership and recreational facilities).
AIMPC Executive Director Federico Macaranas presented the survey results to government and business sector representatives from cities in the Visayas during a forum at the Cebu Midtown Hotel Friday.
To improve the dynamism of a city's economy, Macaranas urged the cities to find ways to link with neighbors in seeking a market for their goods and services.
He also called on LGUs to synchronize their development plans and infrastructure to keep the cost of doing business low. (Sun.Star Cebu)
(March 25, 2006 issue)
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