ILOILO CITY -- The city Business Permits and Licensing Office (BPLO) is confident that this highly urbanized city still has the confidence of the business community.
This after Iloilo City rated poorly in the 2017 Cities and Municipalities Competitiveness Index (CMCI) released last August 16 during the 5th Regional Competitiveness Summit in Pasay City.
“As far as Iloilo (City) is concerned, all indicators showed that business is dynamic and investment is there. Our number of (business) registrations increase significantly,” said BPLO head Norman Tabud on Wednesday.
Iloilo City targets 2,000 new businesses in 2017. As of second quarter of this year, it has registered 1,500 new businesses, he said.
He added that Iloilo City even surpassed the standard on business registration mandated under Joint Memorandum Circular of the Departments of Trade and Industry (DTI), of Interior and Local Government (DILG) and of Information and Communications Technology (DICT).
Meantime, City Planning and Development Office (CPDO) coordinator Jose Roni Peñalosa said that the city government is not losing hope. They just need to push further as he cited that Iloilo City targets to scale up its score in the economic dynamism indicator where the city is now ranked 17th among the 33 highly-urbanized city (HUC) entries. “We look at that as a goal, let us build on the momentum,” he stated.
The CMCI, from the previous three indicators, has added resiliency as another parameter this year. The others are government efficiency, infrastructure and economic dynamism.
While Iloilo City has moved three notches higher in the economic dynamism from last year’s 20th rank, it dropped in other indicators.
It only placed 32nd in government efficiency from its 2016 rank, which was third among 34 HUCs. Also it dropped to 27 from 26 in infrastructure. In resiliency, it was at 31st spot.
Among 33 HUCs that were included in the ranking, Iloilo City was at the 32nd spot from its 8th rank in 2016.
Peñalosa hoped that there will be a separate category for medium size cities and not pit highly-urbanized cities all together, to include those from the National Capital Region (NCR).
“Iloilo City should not be pitted against Metro Manila cities. While it is good to benchmark with them yet there has to be a category for medium-size cities,” he added. (PNA)
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