City urges changes in DTI Competitiveness scoring system
30 March 2021 – The City Planning and Development Office (CPDO) is currently in discussions with the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) to achieve a better understanding on how the Summer Capital ranked 19th in the 2020 Cities and Municipalities Competitive Index (CMCI) among the country’s 33 highly-urbanized cities.
CPDO chief Archt. Donna Rillera Tabangin disclosed this in the March 23 regular management committee meeting of local officials led by Mayor Benjamin Magalong at Baguio Convention Center.
The city garnered an overall score of 38.54 points, the lowest since it joined the CMCI rankings in 2017, based on four pillars: Economic dynamism; government efficiency; infrastructure; and resiliency.
Tabangin said her office is currently analyzing data submitted to the DTI and see where the city is lagging behind or check whether its middle-of-the-road ranking is due to the data submitted itself.
It was also discovered during the discussions that other cities and municipalities are also requesting an updating of the CMCI scoring system especially its method of standardizing overall scores, she said.
“Some LGUs are always on top and are already hall of famers and those lagging behind are also the same. Maybe the CMCI scoring system already needs to be looked into and for it to account for differences in terms of territory size and population served. It would also be very helpful if DTI will provide more detailed guidance.” Tabangin said.
Tabangin also shared recommendations for data scoring from the UP School of Urban and Regional Planning during the meeting.
These are: Education, health, disaster and risk reduction sectors should not be based on the highest number of resources but instead use ratio and proportion to compute if they meet the minimum standards;
Total budget investment on certain sectors should not be based on the highest amount but on the percent allocation of that sector; tourism sector should not be based on the highest number but instead compute facility-tourist ratio; Information technology sector should not be based on highest number of providers but instead focus on service coverage and/or percentage of households with access to services;
Basic equipment/services/facilities should not be based on the highest number but on the coverage area and/or percentage of households with access to these; a list of the unit of measurement and data format needed per indicator should be provided for a proper format.
Other issues that need to be settled are: which data source would be considered as more authoritative; evidences that were not considered as coming from credible sources; incorrect or inconsistent entries; and inappropriate data submitted.
For his part, the Mayor urged all concerned offices to coordinate with the CPDO and give the needed data when asked for and see to it that these are complete and with acceptable supporting evidence.
He said that getting top ranking in the CMCI is also of importance because the competitiveness of a locality plays a huge part in swaying the decisions of local and international investors on where to invest their hard-earned capital. – Gaby B. Keith
