BAGO City Mayor Nicholas Yulo said the recognition they received from the Regional Development Council (RDC) as the most improved city in Western Visayas will help attract more investors.
In December, the RDC- Western Visayas, through its Competitive Local Government Units (LGUs) Awards, recognized Bago City as the number one most improved city, and third in government efficiency.
It was among the nine LGUs from Negros Occidental which bagged a total of 17 awards based on the annual cities and municipalities competitiveness index (CMCI) survey.
The CMCI survey covers municipalities and cities in the region which submitted data to measure competitiveness based on indicators under the pillars of economic dynamism, government efficiency, infrastructure, and resiliency.
The mayor said the achievement is mainly attributed to the enthusiasm of the city government employees.
Yulo said they established an all year round one-stop-shop processing center catering efficiently to businessmen.
Aside from the significant improvement in tax collection last year, the increasing number of businesses, even small ones, also contributed to the city’s performance that resulted to the awards, Yulo said.
“The purpose of good governance is really to attract more investors. It has borne fruits already in our city,” the mayor said, “but we need more investments.”
The mayor, at the sidelines of the 10th Lights of Bago on Monday, revealed that there are two prominent retail companies currently looking for locations at the city.
These are on top of various big food franchisees eyeing to start operations this year.
Aside from retail, Bago is also ready to cater to more investments in agriculture.
Currently, there is a Chinese-owned feed mill, a multi-million investment, operating in Barangay Napoles, Yulo said.
“Efforts on having more infrastructure projects like construction of alternative roads, establishment of new markets, and improvement of water facilities, among others, will continue this year,” he said.
Talks with telecommunication companies are also ongoing as “there is a need to improve connectivity to cater to higher business categories and segments.”