But it’s still No. 1 in economy dynamism; Mandaue, Lapu-Lapu make it to top 12
CEBU CITY (PNA) — The cities of Cebu, Mandaue and Lapu-Lapu made it to the top 12 in the list of 50 metro cities in the Philippine Cities Competitiveness Ranking Project (PCCRP) for 2003.
But Cebu City’s rating dropped from second spot in 2002 to fifth in 2003, sharing the slot with Las Piñas.
Mandaue ranked 10th in the survey. Lapu-Lapu placed 12th.
Marikina ranked No. 1, followed by Pasig, Davao and Makati.
The 2002 survey had Cebu City, trailing Davao.
Marikina, the overall first in 2003, was only third in 2002.
The 2003 survey used 70 indicators, 21 quantitative and 49 perception-based.
Cebu City ranked first in the area on dynamism of local economy and second in human resources and training, and linkages and accessibility.
Mandaue’s "strongest indicators" include road density and low incidence of theft per 100,000 population.
It got low scores for cost of power for industrial use average household income, market size and number of Internet service providers, vocational institutions, tertiary educational institutions, and banks.
Other indicators include average rent of commercial space, local inflation rate, adequate cellular phone signals and the availability of international entry and exit points.
The cities were evaluated in terms of the cost of doing business, dynamism of local economy, linkages and accessibility, quality of human resources and training, infrastructure, responsiveness of local government to business needs and quality of life.
PCCRP 2003 was conducted by the Asian Institute of Management Policy Center in collaboration with the Konrad Adenauer Foundation, the Asia Foundation, German Technical Cooperation and the International Labor Organization.
PCCRP’s primary objective is to rank the economic competitiveness of different urban centers in the country and measure how effective they are in providing an environment conducive to business and industry.
It assesses the general ability of the cities to attract investments and entrepreneurs and uplift their residents’ standard of living.
There are three categories in the ranking — the metro cities (comprising Metro Manila, Metro Cebu and Metro Davao), mid-sized cities (non-metro cities with populations greater than 200,000), and small cities (cities with populations of less than 200,000).
For mid-size cities, Bacolod topped the 2003 list, followed by San Fernando, Pampanga and Cagayan de Oro. For small cities, Koronadal took first place, followed by San Fernando, La Union and Tagaytay.
From 30 cities in 2002, the number increased to 50 cities surveyed for the 2003 listing. Of the 50, 23 are from Luzon, 11 from Visayas and 16 from Mindanao.
Mayor Thadeo Ouano said he never expected that Mandaue would make it to the list.
"This is for our employees. Without them, we wouldn’t be here," he said.
