The City of Bayawan landed in the list of top 25 “competitive” cities nationwide.

Bayawan was the only city in Negros Osland and one of three cities in the Visayas region to be named in the small cities category, according to the study conducted by the Asian Institute of Management’s 2007 Philippine Cities Competitiveness ranking Project (PCCRP).

The other tow Visayan cities who share the same honor are Tagbilaran in Bohol and Calbayog in Samar.

Bayawan Mayor German Saraña, expressed pride in this achievement. “We as Bayawanons should be happy over this feat,” he said,” which is a first for Bayawan City since it become a city in December 200.”

Vice Mayor Rene Gaudiel, who received the award in Manila Friday, said the study is very helpful units because it would tell them how they are doing and where they stand and this would also be an effective guide in developing the city.

The PCCRP is a flagship research undertaking of the AIM Policy Center to identify the best cities in the Philippines in which to live, work and operate a business.

In this search, the survey covered 90 cities, which were rated on the basis of six criteria or “competitiveness drivers.” To undertake the study in Negros island, the AIM Policy Center partnered with Silliman University.

These were dynamism of local economy, cost of doing business, infrastructure, human resources and training, responsiveness of local government units to business needs and quality of life.

The cities were classified into metro, mid-sized and small. In the Visayas, Lapu-Lapu City was in the list of the outstanding Metro cities.

The result is posted on AIM’s website www.policy.aim.edu. While the top cities have been identified, the list is in alphabetical order and not based on their ranking in the survey.

Started in 1999, the PCCRP is conducted every two years to provide a broad perspective of the general well-being of a city, to serve as benchmark for both local government units and investors and to be an avenue for city government to learn from the best practices of other cities.

AIM said that while doing the study, it noticed that neither LGUs nor national government agencies could provide comprehensive and updated statistics for all cities in the country.

The study recommends for the national government so that cities will have accurate and up-to-date statistics.

LGUs, on the otherhand, need to have constant communication.