BAGUIO CITY – Baguio City dropped two notches lower to 15th place in the 2015 competitiveness ranking compared to its 13thplace two years ago, a report from the National Competitiveness Council (NCC) stated.
The city dropped to 21st place from the previous 19thplace in economic dynamism while it drastically dropped to 36th place from its earlier 19th place ranking in infrastructure development.
However, the city improved its ranking in governance as it placed 7th or two notches higher compared to its 9th place two years ago.
The city’s 15th place ranking for this year was considered a relatively good standing out of the 150 highly urbanized and component cities in the different parts of the country.
Of the 34 highly urbanized cities, the city ranked 14th placing 21st in economic dynamism, 28th in infrastructure development and maintained 7th spot in governance efficiency.
It can be recalled that the NCC conceptualized the competitiveness ranking among cities and municipalities basing their achievements on economic dynamism, governance efficiency and infrastructure development.
Mayor Mauricio G. Domogan admitted that the city government can still do better in improving its standing in the national competitiveness ranking with the passing of important legislations, like the comprehensive land use plan and zoning ordinance, and the revised revenue code to update its antiquated real property and business taxes to conform with current trends.
In terms of infrastructure development, he said that efforts must be made to make sure that the city council will pass the annual budget of the city by the end of the preceding year to allow immediate review by the regional office of department of budget and management before it is returned for implementation.
According to him, the previous annual budgets of the city were passed either February or March that delayed the review of the concerned government agency thus resulting in delayed implementation of local development projects included in the annual investment plan of the city.
He said something must already be done by the city officials in order to address the city’scompetitiveness ranking in the coming years so as not to be dropped further from its ranking.
Under the Local Government Code of 1991, local chief executives are required to submit their proposed annual budgets to the Sanggunian concerned on or before October 16 of each year to allow the local legislative bodies to make a thorough review of the same budget proposal before approving it for implementation by the executive department.
By HENT
