Six local government units (LGUs) in Central Luzon were recently recognized for their competitiveness in rites held at the Philippine International Convention Center on August 16, 2018. The awards are given to local government units for their ranking 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 (NCC) through the Regional Competitiveness Committees (RCCs) with the assistance of the United States Agency for International Development. The NCC is co-chaired by the Department of Trade and Industry.
The municipality of Pura in Tarlac garnered the most number of awards as it ranked 1st Place in Overall Competitiveness, 1st Place in Economic Dynamism, 1st Place in Government Efficiency and1st Place in Infrastructure for 3rd to 6th Class municipalities. The other awardees from the region include: Zaragoza in Nueva Ecija (3rd Place, Infrastructure and 2nd Place, Most Improved); Baliwag, Bulacan (1st – 2nd Class Municipalities Category, 2nd Place, Infrastructure); Cabiao, Nueva Ecija (2nd Place, Resiliency). For the Component Cities Category, Gapan Nueva Ecija ranked 3rd Place in the Resiliency pillar. The
City of Mabalacat in Pampanga was also ranked 1st Place in the Most Improved LGU category.
Under the CMCI evaluation, cities and municipalities are ranked on their competitiveness based on an overall competitiveness score. The overall competitiveness score is the sum of scores on four main pillars which are derived from several sub-indicators. The three main pillars are economic dynamism, government efficiency, infrastructure and resiliency. Scores are determined by the values of the actual data, as well as the completeness of the submitted data.
