The Need To Want It Bad

We have lost our edge.

From third overall and first in Mindanao in 2003, Cagayan de Oro has slid in rank on urban competitiveness, according to the 2005 edition of the Asian Institute of Management’s (AIM) Policy Center “Philippine Cities Competitiveness Ranking Project” (PCCRP).

The AIM website (http://www.aim.edu/home/announcementc.asp?id=721) explains that the PCCRP assesses the capacity of a city to provide an environment that nurtures the dynamism of its local enterprises and industries.

It also assesses the general ability of a city to attract investments and entrepreneurs, and to uplift the living standards of its residents. Lastly, the project provides a benchmarking process that will aid individual cities in measuring competitiveness.

City competitiveness itself is defined as “the ability of a city to create and maintain an environment that sustains more value creation for its enterprises and more prosperity for its people.”

The PCCRP ranks the competitiveness of various cities using seven major drivers of competitiveness: cost of doing business, dynamism of local economy, linkages and accessibility, human resources and training, infrastructure, responsiveness of local government to business needs, and quality of life.

Sixty-five cities were surveyed in PCCRP 2005, and categorized into 13 metropolitan cities (cities comprising Metro Manila, Metro Cebu, and Metro Davao), 15 mid-sized cities (non-metro cities each with a population greater than 200,000), and 37 small cities (each with a population less than 200,000).

In 2003, Cagayan de Oro scored high in dynamism of the local economy (3rd, 6.53); human resources and training (3rd, 6.84), responsiveness of local government to business needs (3rd, 6.13), infrastructure (2nd, 6.17).

Together with its third place rank for Mid-Sized Philippine Cities (first among five in Mindanao), and overall urban competitiveness score (6.18), the survey said “its rankings and scores indicate it already enjoys above average competitiveness but still has room for improvement, and hence accommodate new players.”

But the same survey results for 2005 shows Cagayan de Oro nowhere in the top five mid-sized cities cited as the Philippines’ most competitive. The findings of the biennial survey were revealed in a national conference held in Makati on February 13, 2006.

From 2nd in 2003, Cagayan de Oro ranking sliding to fourth in infrastructure , to tenth in cost of doing business and twelfth in quality of life.

Still, local businessmen, professionals and government bureaucrats and policy planners appeared stunned when former Socio-Economic Secretary Cayetano W. Paderanga, Jr. disclosed in a recent briefing how Cagayan de Oro’s competitiveness has slid over the past two years.

This indicator was confirmed by former trade regional director Ninfa U. Albania, now the administrator of the Phidivec Industrial Authority.

President Gloria Arroyo recently lauded Cagayan de Oro City Mayor Vicente Emano for the significantly decrease in corruption involving public projects from 65% to 38% as indicated in the SWS Surveys of Enterprises on Corruption dated 06 July 2006.

However, opposition politicians were quick to point to the slew of graft charges facing city hall officials and the fact that it also covered the city of Iligan. For his part, Emano clarified that the survey also included regional offices of the BIR, Customs and other revenue-generating agencies usually associated with corruption as the source of the 38% corruption that continues to persist in the area.

However, Paderanga said that while the PCCRP uses both quantitative and perception-based indicators, he exhorted those present to consider the survey results as specific areas of concern which need to be addressed to improve the city’s competitiveness in time for the next scheduled survey next year.

The PCCRP utilizes qualitative and quantitative criteria to assess city competitiveness vis-à-vis the major drivers of competitiveness. Each driver has corresponding indicators. Twenty-three indicators were quantitative, 45 perception-based.

Ergo, what to do next? Recall what the capitan of one of the city’s real estate development firms answered when asked what Cagayan de Oro needed to do to regain its competitiveness as the leading economy in Mindanao:

Benchmark the opposition.”

As the guest speaker for the 2nd Quarter General Membership Meeting of the Oro Chamber, Pueblo de Oro Chair Guillermo D. Luchangco outlined a five-point program which included benchmarking the opposition, being proactive in making the city attractive and friendly to potential investors, organize teams to personally share first hand experience with visitors, brief “champions” in government on Cagayan de Oro’s potentials by personally inviting them to experience the city, and more pragmatically, tempering the city’s vaunted ‘opposition” stance so as not to make it a deterrent to potential investors.

Luchangco cautioned residents may have to work at becoming the organization to which investors are automatically referred if they are looking at Cagayan de Oro since “few people may actually come to you just because your team exists.”

Luchangco said the latest PCCRP shows Davao city among the top five for Metro Cities and Iligan City among mid-sized cities.

He urged the Oro Chamber to study what enabled Davao and Iligan to qualify for this ranking, then set a goal to put Cagayan de Oro among the Top 5 next year. Equally important, albeit sensitive, was the frequent comments regarding Kagay-anons’ “chip-on-the-shoulder”.

Luchangco related how he heard about the survey of the attitude of the potential work force commissioned by a foreign company for its call center which eventually decided not to locate here since the survey results showed that “employees would likely have a tendency to be difficult to deal with, to often clash with management, rather than cooperate, to be defiant.”

Luchangco said it is incumbent upon business leaders to exert influence to temper that tendency in appropriate degrees whenever the problem was perceived to be arising, rather than just sit back and watch such events transpire; to get involved, try to intercede and explain to people where they are too quick or too negative in reacting.

Too bad we Kagay-anons have a tendency to be adversarial about such matters, especially when it comes to our politics. For instance, few know how 44 of the 60 civil society complaints on which the 8th impeachment complaint now being discussed in Congress were signed by Kagay-anons.

Instead of a rationale discussion on why the national leadership crisis has struck such a responsive chord among locals, supporters of the present local and national administration have been quick to isolate the signatories as “not representative of the local population.”

A dialog between these two groups who are both Kagay-anon to evaluate how this development could adversely affect local business initiatives given the tendency of the administration to “over-react” to sentiments such as these would have been much more constructive than the subsequent word war in local media which has followed this disclosure.

Not the least, Luchangco cited the key role played by meticulous preparation.

He cited how ‘Team Pueblo de Oro’ first studied what call center operators considered favorable factors when locating their facilities to a particular location when it decided to attract a call center to locate here. Then the team prepared a presentation that addressed the facts call center owners wanted to know, from power rates to supply, to telecommunications availability to supply of the types of people they would want to hire.

Luchangco said one call center company told them it was the most impressive and comprehensive presentation they had ever experienced.

Not the least, the capitan emphasized the need to “do your homework.”

He stressed how sitting down with visiting businessman and talking small talk is definitely not the way to go : knowing your statistics and facts about Cagayan de Oro versus the rest of the Philippines is.

And of course, to be hungry enough to be in among the country’s Top Five Mid-Sized Cities again. Very hungry

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