By PR | 01:41 PM January 19, 2024
The province of Bohol gears up to reclaim a higher spot in this year’s competitive index ranking.
This was tackled during the 2024 Cities and Municipalities Competitiveness Index (CMCI) Roadshow held on Jan. 18 at the Capitol attended by provincial officials, mayors, municipal planning development coordinators (MPDC), and representatives.
The mindset to bounce back after Bohol went down in 2023 to 57th place from 35th in 2022.
The Department of Trade and Industry’s (DTI) CMCI, an annual ranking of Philippine cities, provinces, and municipalities, is based on the local government units’ (LGUs) performance in five pillars which includes economic dynamism, government efficiency, infrastructure, resiliency, and innovation.
It aims to help LGUs gauge their competitiveness level against global standards, identify areas for improvement and growth, launch reforms and initiatives, guide appropriate business locations, and provide take-off points for planning and further research.
Ma. Theresa Sederiosa, Industry Development Division in Central Visayas (DTI 7) chief, discussed CMCI and shared her strategies, especially for uplifting the region’s overall score, which unfortunately is on a downward trend.
“Central Visayas used to be at number four, contributing to the country on exports and we are now down to eight,” Sederiosa explained.
She also emphasized the importance of accurate baseline data, and the gathering procedures in complying with CMCI.
The downward trend, particularly in Bohol, can be associated with the COVID-19 pandemic that affected the tourism industry, which is the main economic driver of the UNESCO Global Geopark island province.
Meanwhile, provincial administrator Asteria Caberte urged mayors to discourage last-minute, copy-paste data submissions on CMCI surveys.
“Let’s be passionate in submitting information. It has a big impact (on LGU’s CMCI),” Caberte said in underscoring the need to comply with CMCI religiously.
“It has a long-term benefit to the people especially in creating jobs in each locality,” she emphasized on expanding workforce which is a priority in the Strategic Change Agenda under Gov. Erico Aristotle Aumentado’s administration.
Jerome John Gabin, DTI Bohol OIC-DC, also presented the proposed CMCI team composition and the next steps to realize the initiative through the conduct of cluster sessions by LGU categories, which will commence starting this month.
“We strongly encourage and propose that LGUs establish a CMCI team supported by an executive order from the mayor. This will ensure clarity regarding the designated custodian for the data required in the capture sheet,” he added.
The proposed CMCI team is composed of the mayor/municipal administrator as the leader, the focal person as the secretariat, the treasurer’s office for economic dynamism, the planning development coordinator’s office for government efficiency and innovation, the engineering’s office for infrastructure, and the disaster risk reduction management office for resiliency.
“I am glad that the team composition is well-distributed in gathering data, which makes the task lighter and not a burden only to MPDC,” noted lawyer John Vistal, head of the Provincial Planning and Development Office.
During the open forum, the LGUs of Talibon and Sevilla volunteered to be prioritized for one-on-one sessions with municipal technical working groups, along with Sederiosa and Caberte considering her expertise as a former DTI assistant secretary.
In her closing remarks, Ma. Fe Dominise, head of the Bohol Economic Development and Investment Promotion Office, thanked DTI for embracing CMCI.
“Back then, this is only an intervention but now a regular program that the Provincial Government of Bohol (PGBh) will also be coordinating and facilitating,” she shared.
Dominise also added that PGBh will create its own team, and will recognize outstanding LGUs through incentives to encourage them to be compliant on CMCI submissions.
Jude Bernard Guieb, formerly from DTI-Bohol, was also announced as PGBh focal person on the competitiveness program.
Jeanette Busano of the Tagbilaran City Planning and Development Office also shared their best practices after bagging a total of six awards from DTI including 10th Place for Overall Most Competitive City recognition in the CMCI Awards last year. (PIMO/JSS)
