Negros Oriental remained in 32nd place in the the list of the 145 most competitive provinces in the Philippines, while Dumaguete slid from 72nd in 2016 to 104th place last year, in the Cities and Municipalities Competitiveness Index.
The Cities and Municipalities Competitiveness Index 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 US Agency for International Development.
The NCC website says the competitiveness index is based on four pillars namely Economic Dynamism, Government Efficiency, Infrastructure, and Resiliency.
In the overall standing, Bayawan topped the six cities in Negros Oriental in rank 35, followed by Dumaguete in rank 104, Tanjay in rank 129, Bais in rank 122, Canlaon in 128, and Guinhulngan in 132.
As for its record per category, Dumaguete ranked 128 out of 145 cities for resiliency in land use plan, disaster risk reduction plan, annual disaster drill, early warning system, and local risk assessments. It got an 80 for infrastructure, 88 for government efficiency and 57 for economic dynamism.
Negros Oriental, by ranking 32nd among all provinces, ended up slightly better than its twin province of Negros Occidental, which ranked 53rd.
Specific indicators in this annual search include figures on local economy size, growth, and structure, education, health, IT and financial technology capacity, land use, early warning system, risk reduction plans, and employment, Senior Director of the BSP-Department of Economic Research Zeno Ronald Abenoja told participants in the BSP conference on Gearing Up for External Competitiveness in Bacolod City last week.
BSP Acting Deputy Director Joselito Basilio said that this list is a combination of both the highly urbanized cities and component cities. Dumaguete is a component city of Negros Oriental.
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