National Competitiveness Council (NCC) Co-Chair Guillermo Montinola Luz urged Iloilo's government and business sectors to work more to enhance the country's global competitiveness level and to do so with a ''play to win'' attitude.

Luz made the pitch for a more competitiveness Philippines before participants of the NCC Roadshow recently held at the Iloilo Grand Hotel by the NCC and Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) through the DTI in Region 6.

Luz, who represents the private sector in the NCC, cited the results of the World Bank (WB) and International Finance Corporation (IFC)'s 2013 Ease of Doing Business Report as well as the World Economic Forum-Global Competitiveness Report for 2011 and 2012.

Those were the focus of Luz's State of Competitiveness Report which he presented during said NCC roadshow themed, ''Boosting regional competitiveness through public-private partnership.''

The results of the WEF Global Competitiveness Report shows that the country has to exert more efforts in improving its competitiveness ranking based on 12 major indicators, namely institutions, infrastructure, macroeconomic environment, health and primary education, higher education and training, goods market efficiency, labor market efficiency, financial market development, technological readiness, market size, business sophistication, and innovation.

Although he acknowledged that the country has made improvements insofar as the indicators are concerned, Luz said ''it's still a long way to obtain a better score.''

Filipinos, he said, do not look at business as a competitive endeavor like sports when, the truth is, it (business) is really a competitive activity.

''Let's play to win,'' Luz said as he pointed out that Filipinos themselves and Ilonggos for that matter can raise the country's competitiveness level by working together, embrace a culture of excellence in governance and use public-private sector partnership as a development engine.

He said this is important because ''being more competitive means we can gain more investments, favorable trade terms, tourists, our own people who are working as OFWs, and a good reputation or image abroad.''

Said NCC roadshow also included a presentation on the results of the Annual Enterprise Survey on Corruption 2012 Report by Linda Luz B. Guerrero, vice president of the Social Weather Stations (SWS).

The survey was designed to gauge respondents' opinions and perceptions of corruption in the public sector as well as in the private realm and the business climate in the country. For the first time, the survey included Iloilo, along with Cebu and Davao. It also covered the National Capital Region, Metro Angeles, Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Cagayan de Oro City, and Iligan.

Also present at the roadshow were DTI6 Regional Director Dominic P. Abad and Regional Competitiveness Committee chairperson and Regional Development Council-6 co-chair Marissa Segovia.

Original source: Manila Bulletin (PIA 6)