Building the Regional City

Iloilo no longer in list of best performing mid-sized cities

By admin ⋅ July 8, 2008 ⋅  Email this post ⋅  Print this post ⋅ Post a comment

THE Iloilo City government will initiate a roundtable discussion to analyze and learn from the results of the 2007 Philippine Cities Competitiveness Ranking Program (PCCRP) survey.

Iloilo City Mayor Jerry Treñas called for the said meeting after learning that Iloilo City was not included in the top 7 best performing mid-sized cities of the 2007 PCCRP ranking.

Treñas said he is saddened by the city’s exclusion from the top performing cities that were recognized in Makati City June 4.

The PCCRP benchmark which seeks to identify the best cities to live, work and operate a business in the country is a flagship research undertaking of the Asian Institute of Management (AIM) Policy Center.

“It’s a very significant award that’s why I feel very bad. There’ no substitute to being included in the recognition. We will meet with our local partners to see what we can do next year,” Treñas told reporters.

He noted Iloilo City ranked fourth in the 2005 PCCRP citation. This year, the city ranked eighth among the 25 mid-sized cities but only the seven top-performing cities were recognized – Olongapo, General Santos, Tarlac, San Pablo, Cabanatuan, Tagum and Lucena.

The mayor said Iloilo City mainly failed in the “cost of doing business” due to high costs of rental, power and transport services.

Treñas said the dynamism of the local economy and human resources are “low but not so bad.” He added infrastructure and quality of life are also “low.”

But Treñas pointed out that the responsiveness of local government unit is “higher than other cities.”

The University of San Agustin Center for Research and Publication (UCRP) is the Western Visayas research partner of AIM for the 2007 PCCRP survey.

Jigger Latoza, UCRP chairman and 2007 PCCRP project coordinator, said Iloilo City missed the top seven ranking by 0.03 points “which is statically insignificant.”

“This can be attributed to extraneous research factors such as margin of error. And out of the 22 midsized cities surveyed, Iloilo City is on the eight spot which is very good already,” Latoza said.

Latoza – who was also involved in PCCRP surveys in 2001, 2003 and 2005 – also pointed out that other medium-sized cities that performed well in the 2005 PCCRP ranking were also edged out from the 2007 survey.

“But if you look at the past results, among the 2005 awardees that were edged out in the 2007 survey, Iloilo City was on top which means we still performed better than the others,” Latoza said.

Most of the medium-sized cities that made it to the top of the PCCRP rankings are new entrants, added Latoza who is a columnist of The Daily Guardian.

“In his presentation last Friday, Dr. Federico Macaranas of AIM said smaller cities perform better because they have less complex problems. Iloilo City has a bigger population and more pressing concerns than the other midsized cities thus it affected our performance,” he said.

Latoza said the roundtable discussion spearheaded by the City Hall will dissect the 2007 PCCRP results and look at the specific standing of Iloilo City per variable.

“We will also invite strategists from AIM who can help us transform our weaknesses into strength,” Latoza said.

The PCCRP survey results came in the aftermath of typhoon Frank which flooded Metro Iloilo area.

The 2007 PCCRP surveyed 90 cities classified into metro, mid-sized and small based on their population.

They were rated on competitiveness drivers including dynamism of local economy, cost of doing business, infrastructure, human resources and training, responsiveness of LGU to business needs and quality of life.

The PCCRP is a biennial independent study conducted throughout the country which aims to rank cities on the basis of economic performance and responsiveness to business enterprise.

Launched in 1999, PCCRP envisions to promote national competitiveness by encouraging healthy competition among highly urbanized and emerging cities, and emphasizing the crucial roles of small and medium enterprises as backbone of local development.

By gathering and compiling strategic data and providing focused analyses of the results, the PCCRP also seeks to cultivate competitive industries, promote healthy communities and maximize economic potentials of cities.

Over the years, the PCCRP results have served as benchmarks for local chief executives, city planners, and economic and development managers in improving their development strides in their cities.

The latest PCCRP was undertaken in collaboration with the German Technical Cooperation (GTZ), International Finance Corp. (IFC), International Labor Organization (ILO), SM Investments Inc., and Petron Corp.

Jeehan Fernandez, The Daily Guardian