THE Quezon City local government virtually swept the recently concluded 10th Cities and Municipalities Competitiveness Awards, placing among the Top 3 in all categories during the awarding ceremony.
Quezon City won the award for the overall Most Competitive Highly Urbanized City in the country after it edged off other highly urbanized cities and grabbed the first place in the Innovation category and landed second in four other categories, namely Economic Dynamism, Government Efficiency, Infrastructure, and Resilience.
The Cities and Municipalities Competitiveness Summit 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 United States Agency for International Development.
The rankings are based on the five pillars of the Cities and Municipalities Competitiveness Index, namely economic dynamism, government efficiency, infrastructure, resilience, and innovation.
The awards won by the Quezon City government this year marked a continuation of the city’s consistent performance in the CMCI since 2019 when Mayor Joy Belmonte took office.
“Under Mayor Joy Belmonte’s guidance, our city has made massive strides in terms of ease-of-doing business, digital transformation, food security, and the swift delivery of basic services,” said Margie Santos, the head of QC’s Business Permits and Licensing Department (BPLD).
“We are particularly proud of how our QC Business One-Stop Shop (BOSS) is now considered a best-practice model when it comes assisting local MSMEs and fostering the spirit of entrepreneurship,” she added.
Belmonte thanked the judges for the recognition, saying that the awards were “a reminder that QC is on the right track, and that both government and QCitizens must work together to continuously improve our city.”
“The five pillars of the CMCI provide a framework and a roadmap of the areas we want to excel in as a city,” Belmonte said, adding: “It is important to remember, however, that increased competitiveness must always be accompanied by inclusive growth, so we must also ensure that our gains are felt by the greatest number of people.”
