Official Website of General Santos City

THE PHILIPPINE CITIES COMPETITIVENESS RANKING PROJECT 2002

How competitive are the country's emerging cities?

The Asian Institute of Management (AIM) Policy Center and the Department of Trade & Industry (DTI) conducted this City Ranking Competitiveness Project 2002 ,

• first : to answer the main question , attempting to approximate the competitiveness performance of thirty three (33) cities in the    country;

• second: to formulate a process and a technology with which the development strides of cities can be regularly monitored and    evaluated; and

• lastly: to construct a benchmarking process that will aid individual cities in measuring their level of competitiveness in relation to    neighboring cities, and cities in other parts of the globe.

What are the seven major drivers used in the study?

  1. Cost of Doing Business
  2. Dynamism of local economy
  3. Linkages and Accessibility
  4. Quality of Human Resources
  5. Infrastructure
  6. Responsiveness of Local Government to business needs
  7. Quality of Life

What scale was used to assess urban competitiveness?

Score	Qualitative Meaning
0-2	Very low Competitiveness (area of improvement)
3-4	Below Average competitiveness (area of improvement
5	Average
6-7	Above average competitiveness (enhance)
8-10	High competitiveness (sustain)

What cities were included in the ranking?

1. Angeles
2. Bacolod
3. Baguio
4. Batangas
5. Cagayan de Oro
6. Cavite
7. Cebu
8. Dagupan
9. Davao
10. Dumaguete
11. General Santos
12. Iligan13. Iloilo
14. Lapu-Lapu
15. Las Piñas
16. Lipa
17. Mactan

18. Makati
19. Mandaluyong
20. Manila
21. Marikina
22. Olongapo
23. Ormoc
24. Pasig
25. Quezon City
26. San Carlos
27. San Fernando, Pampanga
28. San Fernando, La Union
29. Santa Rosa
30. Tacloban
31. Tagaytay
32. Tagum
33. Tarlac

Based on the research, who were the top ten cities?

  1. GENERAL SANTOS
  2. San Fernando, Pampanga
  3. Davao
  4. Bacolod
  5. Baguio
  6. Tagaytay
  7. Cebu
  8. Iloilo
  9. San Fernando, La Union
  10. Marikina

Davao, General Santos and San Fernando, Pampanga claimed they all topped the 2002 ranking, how is that?

The Cities were categorized into:

  1. Metropolitan Cities - cities comprising Metro manila, Metro Cebu & Metro Davao
  2. Mid- sized cities - non-metro cities that had populations greater than 200,000 inhabitants
  3. Small cities - cities with populations of less than 200,000.

below is a table of the ranking and scores of the thirty-three cities:

RANK	CITY	SCORE	RANK	CITY	SCORE
1	General Santos City	6.7704	18	San Carlos	5.5691
2	San Fernando, Pampanga	6.3538	19	Mandaluyong	5.5284
3	Davao	6.3124	20	Manila	5.5071
4	Bacolod	6.1627	21	Tacloban	5.4629
5	Baguio	6.1405	22	Batangas	5.4212
6	Tagaytay	6.1390	23	Pasig	5.4148
7	Cebu	5.9721	24	Olongapo	5.4140
8	Iloilo	5.9393	25	Dumaguete	5.3611
9	San Fernando, La Union	5.8946	26	Tagum	5.3560
10	Marikina	5.8871	27	Cavite	5.2982
11	Ormoc	5.8529	28	Angeles	5.2675
12	Cagayan de Oro	5.8395	29	Mandawe	5.2431
13	Lipa	5.7637	30	Tarlac	5.2311
14	Las Piñas	5.7426	31	Lapu-Lapu	5.1121
15	MAkati	5.6868	32	Santa Rosa	5.0057
16	Dagupan	5.6526	33	Quezon City	4.7073
17	Iligan	5.6387

Below are the rankings of the thirty-three cities according to the city classification:

METRO CITIES

MID-SIZED CITIES

SMALL CITIES

RANK	CITY	SCORE	RANK	CITY	SCORE	RANK	CITY	SCORE
1	Davao	6.3124	1	General Santos City	6.7704	1	San Fernando, Pampanga	6.3538
2	Cebu	5.9721	2	Bacolod	6.1627	2	Tagaytay	6.1390
3	Marikina	5.8871	3	Baguio	6.1405	3	San Fernando, La Union	5.8946
4	Las Piñas	5.7426	4	Iloilo	5.9393	4	Ormoc	5.8529
5	Makati	5.6868	5	Cagayan De Oro	5.8395	5	Dagupan	5.6526
6	Mandaluyong	5.5284	6	Lipa	5.7637	6	San Carlos	5.5691
7	Manila	5.5071	7	Iligan	5.6387	7	Tacloban	5.4629
8	Pasig	5.4148	8	Batangas	5.4212	8	Olongapo	5.4140
9	Mandaue	5.2431	9	Angeles	5.2675	9	Dumaguete	5.3611
10	Lapu-Lapu	5.1121	10	Tarlac	5.2311	10	Tagum	5.3560
11	Quezon City	4.7073				11	Cavite	5.2982
						12	Santa Rosa	5.0057

THE PLAQUE

THE ANALYSIS OF RESULT

General Santos City is at it again. For two consecutive City Competitiveness rating(1999/2000 and 2002) General Santos City is ranked as number one in both its category and among all cities in the nation. The Tuna Capital can be called the "Entrepreneurial City". When lead researchers visited GenSan several month ago, they were surprised to find that flavor of optimistic enthusiasm in the voice of Mr. Domingo Teng - President of the local chamber. More tha ten cellular phone calls interrupted our conversation. On the other end of the line was someone helping him follow up the contacts made during the recent Tuna Festival held in the city.

The lawless elements menace was mentioned in passing. However, he stresses how everybody is busier than ever trying to upgrade the level of agri-business in the area and the hinterlands. "Mango might see some dramatic production levels in several years time, and more value-added tuna products are still being develop,"quipped Mr. Teng. As the saying goes, "the bigger the crisis, the bigger the upportunity."

General Santos ranks number one for cost of doing business and linkage to other urban and growth areas; number two for quality of life ; and number four for responsiveness of LGU and insfrastructure.

Gensan businesses are upbeat about the fate of their revenues in the next several years. They are very much contented with their proximity and access to ports and raw materials. Availability of skilled labor is rated very high, and so are the quality of the road network and reliability of electric power. They are also happy with the quality and reach of Internet Service Providers and Cellulars phone services. And also, rating for LGU competence and transparency are higher the most cities.