Cebu's booming economy lauded

The Philippine Quality Award Foundation Inc. (PQA) has recognized Cebu's booming economic landscape as a good venue to develop competitiveness.

However, companies here still have to work more on achieving world-class competitiveness as not one Cebu-based company has been nominated for the PQA, said PQA president emeritus Filemon Berba Jr., during the PQA roadshow "Symposium on the pro-active programs for competitiveness" held recently.

Berba said Cebu, or the entire Philippines in general, still needs to fully utilize its pool of competent information technology professionals to avoid the lingering problem of exodus of Filipinos going abroad to work.

"Export the product of the talent, rather than the talent himself. Filipinos are innovative and creative, but the opportunity to create is not yet developed," he said.

Berba emphasized that raising the need for competitiveness even in the SME level will be the country's niche among its competitors.

The recently concluded symposium aims to promote quality and productivity improvement programs that are essential to the well being of the nation's economy and the country's ability to compete effectively in the global marketplace.

PQA is the highest recognition that can be given to organizations from both private and government sectors with excellent performance. Recipients of this prestigious award will be invited to share their best practices to inspire local enterprises to adopt quality and productivity strategies to gain competitive edge.

Berba urged SMEs here to improve competence in order to fight the world's stiff competition. Otherwise, the Philippines will be flooded with products coming from China.

Patterned after the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award given in the United States annually, PQA is a global competitiveness template for private and public organizations in the country, which can also be used as a self-assessment tool.

Berba said most of the awardees are multinational companies engaged in the manufacturing of semi-conductors.

He further stressed that achieving global competitiveness will entail improvement of infrastructure and the time and cost of doing business.

Berba said the foundation will continue to lobby for support from the public sector with the help of the Center for Industrial Competitiveness of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI-CIC).

DTI-CIC, which is the administrative arm of the PQA, offers quality and productivity programs for industrial competitiveness in both public and private sectors.

Recipients for its Pro-Active Programs Achievement Award in Cebu are Cebu Mitsumi Inc. and Timex Philippines Inc.

The Philippine government, through DTI is targeting to put the Philippines in the top 30 in the world's competitiveness ranking. Currently, the country is at the bottom.