Cotabato City now among country's 10 most competitive cities

COTABATO CITY -- This historic city had been named one of the country’s ten most competitive cities” in a search by the National Competitiveness Council (NCC) and the Department of Trade and Industry.Local merchants were elated with such recognition, for them an indication that Cotabato City, which has 37 barangays, is now rising from the adverse effects of conflicts, from underdevelopment and devastation wrought by calamities.Senior employees of DTI’s office for Region 12 in Koronadal City on Friday said the newly-elected Cotabato City Vice Mayor Cynthia Guiani-Sayadi received on Thursday the Cities and Municipalities Competitive Index Award during the Fourth Regional Competitiveness Summit in Manila.Sayadi was elected to office only last May 9, but had served as city administrator for six years under the administration of his older brother, newly-reelected Cotabato City Mayor Japal Guiani, Jr., now in his third and last term as local chief executive.The search for most competitive cities and municipalities is a joint annual event of the NCC and DTI.Lawyer Ishak Mastura, chairman of the Regional Board of Investments in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), said he was fascinated and delighted with Cotabato City’s having been named one of the country’s most competitive cities.He said Cotabato City, the provisional capital of ARMM, deserves the feat, adding that it can help improve the area’s investment climate. The nearby ARMM provinces of Lanao del Sur and Maguindanao generated the most business investments in recent years, in billions of pesos. Cotabato City is an immediate part of the logistical supply chain of these investments,” Mastura said. The inclusion of Cotabato City in this year’s most competitive cities was premised on economic dynamism, government efficiency, and infrastructure ranking pillars.”DTI-12 sources said Cotabato City ranked first in government efficiency, from among the three core pillars, the basis for the selection of competitive cities and municipalities.It is the NCC that ranks the cities and municipalities that qualify for the competitiveness awards.Also present in Thursday’s awarding rite in Manila were the regional director of DTI-12, Ibrahim Guimadel, chairman of the regional competitiveness council (RCC), Raymund Salangsang and Ethel Gumana.Salangsang, a private entrepreneur, and Gumana, who is also a ranking employee of DTI-12, are both members of the RCC.Besides Cotabato City, also named most competitive cities were Naga in Camarines Sur San Fernando in Pampanga Legazpi in Albay Bacoor in Cavite Antipolo in Rizal Ilagan in Isabela Imus in Cavite Tagum in Davao del Norte and San Pablo in Laguna.Sandra Siang, chairperson of the Kutawato Muslim Business Chamber, said Cotabato City’s having been included in this year’s most competitive cities will boost investors’ confidence. This is something so positive. This will help prove to people outside of Cotabato City that we are moving upwards now, rising from conflicts and underdevelopment,” Siang said.Siang operates a hardware store in Cotabato City and deals with trading contacts in the regional capital, Koronadal City, in nearby Mindanao provinces, in Metro Manila and abroad.It was just more than a decade ago when Cotabato City, established 57 years ago, have had economic woes after all regional offices of line agencies in the area, then capital of Region 12, were relocated to Koronadal City, a geographical realignment initiated by Malacañang.The city also suffered socio-economic setbacks as a consequence of the secessionist conflicts in surrounding towns in Maguindanao in 2000, when then President Estrada declared a drawn-out war against the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.Cotabato City’s business climate was again stymied when hostilities broke out in 2003, sparked by the military’s takeover of the 5,000-hectare Buliok Complex, a guerilla camp at the border of Pagalungan, Maguindanao and Pikit, North Cotabato.The conflicts escalated after the botched crafting in August 5, 2008 of the Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain by the government and the MILF, the supposed basis for the creation of a Moro homeland in Mindanao.Government and MILF negotiators were restrained by the Supreme Court from forging ahead with the deal on the premise that it contained many unconstitutional provisions.Low-lying areas and riverside enclaves in the city, traversed by large rivers that spring from Central Mindanao’s 220,000-hectare Liguasan Delta, were repeatedly hit by floods in the past 10 years.Sayadi, who defeated rivals during the May 9 elections with an overwhelming vote lead, earlier said she will improve old but still applicable city ordinances meant to improve security in all of the city’s 37 barangays and hasten the growth of the domestic economy.Sayadi, as vice mayor, is also presiding officer of the Cotabato City council.