Data and the city

Cities are basically the economic engines of national economies. Regardless of whether you are looking at developed or emerging countries, cities typically outperform their own host countries in terms of GDP, productivity, innovation, and creativity. Their growth outpaces the country they belong to. That should not really be so surprising since cities are the hubs of opportunity, innovation, and community. They concentrate a large population in a relatively small space, which can create economies of scale and efficiency. When well planned, power and energy, communications, water, transportation, health care, education, and other basic services can be delivered efficiently and affordably. Density can be good when well managed.

Cities also face complex challenges. Congestion, waste management, crime, poverty, poor housing, and traffic come to mind as among the problems that modern metropolis faces. When poorly managed, urban density can become a living hell. Facing these complex challenges demands bold, forward-thinking, and creative solutions.

The management and solution to these challenges begin and end with data. Often overlooked, data is far more than numbers or statistics—it is the foundation of analysis and informed decision-making, the catalyst for innovation, and the key to unlocking the full potential of our cities. In an era of rapid urbanization and technological advancement, data has become a critical driver of progress. For Philippine cities, harnessing data effectively is essential to boosting competitiveness, improving public services, and fostering sustainable growth. It allows us to identify challenges, optimize resources, and implement evidence-based solutions that deliver lasting impact.

Under our Liveable Cities project, we explore how cities can leverage data to unlock their potential. We examine initiatives that use data as a benchmarking tool, highlight its role in guiding decision-making, and showcase how it can help build a more competitive, sustainable, and liveable Philippines. We recently conducted a Liveable Cities Lab focused on Data and the City as part of this year’s theme “Sustain+Ability: Enabling Cities of the Future,” which underscores our commitment to sustainability and equipping cities with the tools, knowledge, and partnerships needed to drive transformative change.

Why is it important to look at cities? The country has almost 150 cities, which account for about 40 percent of the total population. On top of that, there are around 1,500 municipalities or towns that are classified as first or second-class, third- or fourth-class, and fifth- and sixth-class municipalities depending on their population and income. All told, the Philippines is over 50 percent urbanized. These cities and municipalities are scattered around the 7,000-plus islands across the country and collectively constitute the economic engines of the provinces and regions.

Once upon a time, it was difficult to collect and analyze data about our cities and municipalities. Mayors had no way of comparing their cities against other cities while entrepreneurs had difficulty making decisions about where to locate their businesses. All that changed in 2012 when the then National Competitiveness Council created the Cities and Municipalities Competitiveness Index or CMCI. This became a basic metric that city officials, businesses, and the academic community used to evaluate city and municipality performance.

CMCI started by measuring three basic performance indicators (economy, infrastructure, and governance) and later added two indicators over the years (resilience and innovation). Starting with only 250 local government units, CMCI now covers all 1,634 local government units (LGUs) across the country. When it first started, LGUs could barely submit 50 percent of the required data. Today, they can submit up to 95 percent of the data requirement because they understand the value of data to mayors, businessmen, and academics. The data helps everybody assess the local competitiveness of our cities and municipalities.

Today, after running for over 12 years and collecting one of the most complete datasets for cities and municipalities, our Department of Trade and Industry wishes to discontinue the project for reasons still not clear to us. Discontinuing the CMCI cuts a fairly longtime series of data and runs the risk of ruining the practice of regular data collection and analysis which has already become a habit among LGUs. This is a practice which, I might add, requires constant improvement. It is important to continue, protect, and make this important database more transparent and accessible to the public and to city and municipal mayors. In the age of artificial intelligence, we will need more clean and accurate datasets to use in models and algorithms that will be used to help analyze trends. CMCI’s cancellation in an age when data and data analytics is becoming more important is a step in the wrong direction.