The City of Bacolod and four other cities in Negros Occidental were among the top awardees in the 4th Regional Competitiveness Council-Western Visayas Recognition Ceremony for Competitive Local Government Units (LGUs).
The citations were awarded by the Department of Trade and Industry-6 in rites held at the Zuri Hotel in Iloilo City on Tuesday.
The LGUs were awarded based on the four pillars of Economic Dynamism, Government Efficiency, Infrastructure, and Resiliency.
In the highly urbanized cities category, Bacolod received the award for Infrastructure and Resiliency. It also bagged another award as among the Most Improved LGUs in Western Visayas.
Among the component cities, Kabankalan ranked first in Resiliency, and second in both Economic Dynamism and Infrastructure. La Carlota placed second in Resiliency.
For Government Efficiency, Cadiz was number one while Silay was in second place. Cadiz was also one of the awardees for Most Improved LGUs.
Economic Dynamism is associated with activities that create a stable expansion of businesses and industries and higher employment while Government Efficiency refers to the quality and reliability of government services and government support for effective and sustainable productive expansion.
Infrastructure refers to the physical building blocks that connect, expand and sustain a locality and its surroundings to enable the provision of goods and services while Resiliency refers to the ability of the people, households, communities, countries, and systems to mitigate, adapt to and recover from shocks and stresses and manner that reduces chronic vulnerability and facilitates inclusive growth.
The annual Cities and Municipalities Competitiveness Index survey is facilitated by the Regional Competitiveness Committees.
Competitiveness indicator systems were used as guidelines in establishing the framework behind the Index.
Cities and municipalities are ranked on their competitiveness based on an overall competitiveness score.
(Nanette Guadalquiver via Philippine News Agency (PNA), photo courtesy of PNA)