Bohol most competitive province in C. Visayas, 12th PH-wide

CEBU CITY – The National Competitiveness Council (NCC) ranked Bohol as number one and 12th as most competitive province in Central Visayas and in the Philippines, respectively during the 6th Regional Competitiveness Summit at the Philippine International Convention Center recently.

According to Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) regional director Asteria Caberte, the NCC developed the Cities and Municipalities Competitiveness Index (CMCI) as an annual ranking survey to measure the competitive performance of local government units in the country.

The survey is supported by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and done by the DTI through its various regional competitive committees (RCCs).

Bohol was the only province in Central Visayas that was among the top 12 most competitive provinces in the Philippines today from its 54th spot nationwide four years ago, Caberte added.

Bohol Governor Edgar Chatto, in a press statement, said this also summarized the competitive performances of the province’s local government units (LGUs).

“Our goal now is to focus on improving the competitiveness of the other LGUs in Central Visayas,” Caberte added.

Caberte bared that Tagbilaran City and the towns of Jagna, Antequera, Sierra-Bullones and Corella ranked prominentl in their respectivel categories.

According to Caberte, the CMCI survey measures the competitiveness of a local government through four pillars that include economic dynamism, government efficiency, infrastructure and resiliency.

Economic dynamism is the ability of LGUs to develop activities that create stable expansion of business and industries and higher job creation while government efficiency is the quality and reliability of government services and support for sustainable productive expansion, Caberte said.

Infrastructure means the physical building blocks of a locality for the provision of goods and services while resiliency is the capacity of an LGU to facilitate industries and raise productivity despite the shocks and stresses it encounters along the way, the DTI added.