BACOLOD City Mayor Evelio Leonardia said that in 2019, the city government should sustain its progress.
“We had a momentum for the past three years and it’s also given that we accelerated in 2018, so we should sustain it in 2019, the more progress we have, the more responsibility we have,” Leonardia said.
He said the needs and demands of the people become more sophisticated and the city should cope up with that.
“If you talk of 20 or 30 years ago, the degree of public service that we demanded from our city officials were different. And now, the faster we grow, the bigger responsibility and we have to see to it that we are able to cope with such expectations of our people,” he added.
The mayor noted that 2018 was a great year for Bacolod.
Leonardia said in 2018, Bacolod celebrated its 80th year as a city as well as more projects and plans were materialized such as drainage master plan and traffic master plan; the construction of the new sanitary landfill; and others.
He said in the business side, all the major indicators are also pointing upwards where the city’s business registration reached 23,000 in 2018 from 18,000 in 2017.
It’s also the time when the Megaworld and Ayala launched their billion worth of projects in Bacolod, he added.
In 2018, the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry recognized Bacolod as among the most business-friendly local government units in the Philippines and even the Manila Times also recognized Bacolod as the most business-friendly city while the National Competitiveness Council also declared Bacolod as “Third Most Improved Highly Urbanized City” in the country.
In terms of tourism, Leonardia said the MassKara Festival was attended by President Rodrigo Duterte for the third consecutive year and Bacolod also hosted the Meeting, Incentive, Convention and Exhibitions Conference, among others.(MAP)