BAUKO, Mountain Province – Mayor Abraham B. Akilit underscored that the recent achievement of the local government during the recently concluded Cities and Municipalities Competitiveness Index (CMCI) only proves that there is no way for the municipality but to move on to greater heights with the sustained support of concerned government agencies.
Akilit, who personally received the plaque of recognition for the town’s accomplishment during the CMCI summit held in Pasay City, said that the local government will review the parameters of each of the 4 criteria adopted in assessing and evaluating the competitiveness of local governments so that they will look into how to improve on the aspects where Bauko did not actually do well.
“We need to continue cracking our heads on how to entice more people to invest in Bauko. We also have to be emphatic in lobbying with concerned government agencies for the provision of more infrastructure projects in the locality so that we will be able to attract more businesses. We want people to come to Bauko and contribute to its overall development,” Mayor Akilit stressed.
The local chief executive claimed that one of the problems raised by prospective investors is the absence of reliable telecommunication signals from the different providers and that it is high time for the Department of Information and Communication Technology (DICT) to look into the matter to help spur economic activity in the countryside, considering that improving infrastructure and communication in rural areas is key to countryside growth.
He attributed the performance of Bauko to the individual and collective efforts of the concerned government agencies and the local government in making people feel the government’s presence in their midst while working on the promotion of the locality as a tourism destination worthy of being frequented by foreign and domestic nature lovers.
Bauko in Mountain Province and Lamut in Ifugao stole the limelight in the recently concluded Cities and Municipalities Competitiveness (CMCI) summit by landing in strategic positions in government efficiency and resiliency, respectively.
Bauko was able to maintain the second spot in the criteria of government efficiency while Lamut grabbed the top spot in the criteria of resiliency, giving the Cordillera honor and pride in terms of producing competitive local governments.
Last year, Bauko garnered 2nd in government efficiency, 543rd place in economic dynamism, 60th place in infrastructure development and 519th place in resiliency.
Aside from sustaining its hold of second place in governance efficiency, Bauko improved its ranking by 200 notches from 543rd to 343rd in terms of economic dynamism and by over 100 notches from 519th to 481st in terms of resiliency but dropped by over 100 notches from 60th to 175th in terms of infrastructure development.
The CMCI is an annual ranking of Philippine cities and municipalities developed by the National Competitiveness Council through the Regional Competitiveness Committees with the assistance of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
By HENT
