A consultant to Bacolod City mayor Monico Puentevella for tourism and international cooperation and development, said yesterday that although he has not yet seen the result of the competitiveness ranking, the city should give it attention.

This was the reaction of Rhoderick Samonte, to the latest result of the All Cities Competitive Index of the National Competitiveness Council of the Philippines which showed that Bacolod City had plummeted to No. 73.

In 2010, Bacolod ranked No. 2. It fell to No. 20 in 2014.

“The way I understand it, Bacolod did not participate or failed to submit the needed requirements. Whatever the reason, I am not privy to it, Samonte admitted.

However, he said that if ever Bacolod joined, they have to see what are the criteria, or the variables considered by the committee. The information sought by Samonte is available at h ttp://www.competitive.org.ph/stories/1134#sthash.5YLEfQyp.dpuf.

He also said he believes it is not the sole indicator for the city's competitiveness. “For as long as investments are coming in, we have big business players in the city and the tourists are coming, for me these are successful indicators,” he said.

“So far, we are on the right track. But I think we still need to do more. We need to collaborate with more public and private sectors,” Samonte claimed, adding that they should give this attention.

In 2010, under former Mayor and now Bacolod Rep. Evelio Leonardia, Bacolod was rated No. 1 in "government efficiency", but in 2015 crashed down to No. 46, in that category.

Records also show that in other 2015 ratings, Bacolod under Puentevella, was No. 97 in economic dynamism, and No. 90 in infrastructure, with an over-all score is 32.7126, to land in the 73 rd , even below about 40 component cities.

In 2014, Bacolod also ranked 15th in economic dynamism, 45th in government efficiency, and 23rd in infrastructure, while in 2010, it had ranked second in over-all competitiveness, 5th in economic dynamism, 1st in government efficiency and 7th in infrastructure.

In 2012, still under the Leonardia administration, Bacolod ranked 5th overall. It ranked 14th in economic dynamism and 45th in infrastructure but 2nd in government efficiency.

This program is conducted by the National Competitiveness Council, aligned with the goal to improve the country's overall competitiveness, through collaborative efforts between the national and local government agencies, and the public and private sectors.*CGS

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