Central Luzon local government units were recently recognized as among the most competitive LGUs in the Philippines. During the 9th Regional Competitiveness Summit held virtually on December 14-15, 2021, the National Competitiveness Council bestowed the awards based on the Cities and Municipalities Competitiveness Index (CMCI) rankings.

Baliuag, Bulacan garnered the most number of awards as it was recognized as Rank 2 in Overall Competitiveness for 1st to 2nd class municipalities in the whole country. It also ranked first in terms of Infrastructure, rank 2 in the Resiliency pillar, rank 3 in the Government Efficiency and rank 5 in Economic Dynamism category.

Baler in Aurora also ranked among the top 3 LGUs in the 3rd to 4th class municipalities category. It ranked 3rd in Overall Competitiveness, ranked 3 in the Economic Dynamism pillar and Rank 4 in terms of Infrastructure.

Other Central Luzon LGUs who were ranked in the top 10 of the CMCI rankings include: City of San Fernando – Rank 6 in Overall Competitiveness for Component Cities Category, Rank 5 in the Infrastructure pillar and rank 8th in terms of Government Efficiency. Sta. Maria, Bulacan was ranked 7th in terms of Economic Dynamism while Marilao was ranked 8th in the same pillar for the 1st to 2nd class municipalities category. Talavera in Nueva Ecija was ranked 10th in terms of Infrastructure among 1st to 2nd class municipalities.

Meanwhile, Samal, Bataan was ranked 8th in terms of Government Efficiency among 3rd to 4th class municipalities in the country. San Antonio, Nueva Ecija also garnered the 9th rank as the Most Improved LGU among 3rd to 4th class municipalities.

Angeles City was also recognized as Rank 5 Most Improved LGU among the Highly Urbanized Cities in the country. Among the provinces recognized, Pampanga ranked 7th Most Competitive Province nationwide while Bulacan ranked 10th Most Competitive Province.

The Cities and Municipalities Competitiveness Index is an annual ranking of Philippine cities and municipalities developed by the National Competitiveness Council through the Regional Competitiveness Committees (RCCs) with the assistance of the United States Agency for International Development.

Rankings of Cities and Municipalities are based on the sum of their scores on 4 Pillars: Economic Dynamism, Government Efficiency, Infrastructure, and Resiliency. Provincial rankings are based on population and income weighted average of the Overall scores of cities and municipalities under a province.