Steady and competitive

By Jay Valleser

MANY were stunned, including myself, when the news came out that Cagayan de Oro is the most competitive city in the Philippines. You see, I almost got carried away by the massive propaganda that our city was on downhill brought about by the wrong and misguided policies of the previous administration. This theme was played so well that the guy who caused this city to be No. 1 suffered one of his rare political debacles. Former Mayor Donkoy Emano must have done some things right which caused this city to top the list.

The study conducted by the National Competitiveness Council and funded by the United States Agency for International Development must have in its agenda to push for better management and governance among the country’s local government units by making it clear the importance of competitiveness. There is indeed a deep meaning to the result that made Cagayan de Oro as such. One of the indicators in the study was local fiscal governance which measured how the city managed its resources in relation to the basic services afforded to the people.

The study proves that under the previous administration, the business sector and the consuming public got  a better deal.

Being competitive is not made overnight. It needs a steady and consistent policy focused on what serves the public best.

In one of its activities, the Bureau of Employers Activities of the International Labor Organization defined competitiveness as “where enterprises can create both new and additional jobs which in turn is one of the most concrete and important contributions to national efforts on poverty reduction.” While the city is not expected to create new and additional jobs, it must have been right in its policies that promoted enterprises to create new and additional jobs.

In its book “Operations Management,” the author William Stevenson noted that competitiveness  is “how effectively an organization meets the wants and needs of customers in relation to others that offer similar goods and services.” If we take the meaning of “organization” into “local government” and “customers” into “city residents,” we can surmise that the previous administration of the city must have satisfactorily met the needs and wants of city residents.

Empirical data are needed to be able to determine a local government to be competitive. The study that declared our city as such has more than enough for a one-night reading. I didn’t finish it in one night. But I was convinced by the data. If we put it side by side with what others thought the previous administration to be, still the study will not convince the cynics. But since the conclusion goes with hard facts and numbers, that should settle the issue.

Let’s give credit to where or whom it is due. This time, the credit goes to former mayor Dongkoy Emano. He has made his mark that could be part of his legacy to the city. The present administration of Mayor Oca Moreno has a long way to go. He may even top what Emano has done on competitiveness. One way to do this is asking the former mayor’s advice on how he did it so that Mayor Oca can improve on it.

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