LA TRINIDAD, Benguet – The capital town continues to be one of the most competitive local governments in the country after being adjudged as the 12th overall among the close to 500 first to second class municipalities during the 7th edition of the Cities and Municipalities Competitiveness index (CMCI).
La Trinidad’s 12th place finish this year was 6 notches higher compared to its 18th place in last year’s awarding of the most competitive local governments from the different parts of the country.
The municipality dropped to 7th from its previous 4th place ranking in terms of economy dynamism but leaped to 14th place in terms of government efficiency and 19 place in resiliency.
However, La Trinidad ranked beyond 20th place in terms of infrastructure that slightly pulled down its ranking and settled for the 12th spot.
Based on the assessment criteria of the CMCI, local governments are judged on their compliance to the parameters of economic dynamism, government efficiency, infrastructure development and resiliency.
The CMCI website stated that economic dynamism is closely related to the activities that create stable expansion of business and industries as well as higher employment, thus, local governments are perceived to provide an avenue for economic growth for its people.
On the other hand, government efficiency measures the quality and reliability of government services and government support for effective and sustainable productive expansion.
Infrastructure development refers to the physical building blocks that connect, expand and sustain a locality and its surroundings to enable the provision of goods and services aside from involving basic inputs for production such as energy, water, inter-connection of production such as transportation, roads and communications; sustenance of production such as waste, disaster preparedness, environmental sustainability and human capital formation infrastructure.
Further, resilience refers to the capacity of a locality to facilitate businesses and industries to create jobs, raise productivity and increase the income of citizens over time despite the shocks and stresses it encounters which implies that the role of local governments is critical in ensuring a competitive environment to make businesses sustain their profits, create jobs, and increase the productivity of its people.
Mayor Romeo Salda admitted that one of the factors that pulled down the town’s ranking on infrastructure development is the absence of an accredited hotel to service the accommodation requirements of visitors wanting to spend the night in the municipality and enjoy its scenic destinations, thus, the need for the local government to entice investors to put up accredited accommodation establishments in strategic areas in the municipality.
The local chief executive claimed that the municipal government will try to work on the weak points that were outlined in the town’s rankings to improve its competitiveness ranking in the coming years, thus, the need for concerned stakeholders to extend the appropriate assistance to the locality to help improve its rankings in the next edition of the CMCI awards.
Salda underscored that the achievement of the municipality will serve as a motivation and inspiration for the municipal government to strive for better delivery of services to its constituents. By HENT
