BACOLOD City was recognized as the “most competitive city” in Western Visayas during the second Regional Development Council (RDC)-Western Visayas competitive Local Government Units (LGUs) rites held in Iloilo City on November 16.

George Zulueta, vice chairman of City Development Council (CDC), said Monday, November 19, the ranking is based on the sum of the scores of the LGUs in the four pillars -- economic dynamism, resiliency, infrastructure, and government efficiency in 2017.

He said Bacolod City topped in infrastructure, resiliency and economic dynamism pillars and was ranked second in government efficiency.

“This means that we are in the radar of investors. This is national competitiveness award, a report card of all LGUs in the Philippines of how they rank as a major competitiveness and investment destinations,” he said.

Zulueta, who received the award along with other city officials, noted that in the previous years, Bacolod was ranked number 73.

He said in infrastructure, Bacolod invested more than P200 million for the construction of roads, bridges among others while in economic dynamism, Bacolod has 30 percent increase in new businesses registration from 17,000 registered businesses in 2016 to 22,000 in 2017.

He added in resiliency, the city’s Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office (DRRMO) also received several awards for the implementation of its programs.

Jonah Javier, local economic and investment promotions officer, said they also need more effort to top the government efficiency pillar in 2019.

She said they already activated their automated clearance system to shorten the time of processing business permit especially, for the renewal of business permits.

“We need to improve this for the convenience of our taxpayers,” she added.

Mary Jean Ramos, City Planning and Development Office head, said these awards were garnered through the best effort and support of all the city departments.

“We are thankful to our businessmen and investors here and we hope that the online or automated clearance system can add to our efficiency to shorten the processing time of business permit,” she said.

Stela Rose Rayos, Permits and Licensing Division head, said on December, the Ayala Mall will also open and some of its merchants have already started processing their business permits.

She said about 2,000 new entrepreneurs are expected to open in Ayala Mall and it’s a good development in the city.

In August, Bacolod was declared number 8 in the country and number 1 in the Visayas among highly urbanized cities (HUCs) by the National Competitiveness Council (NCC) during its sixth Competitiveness Summit and Awards at the Philippine International Convention Center (PICC) in Manila.