APEC cities: Cebu, Manila low in livability

MANILA, Philippines - Cebu and Manila got low rankings in livability and competitiveness among cities of  the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) member economies.

Manila ranked 22nd while Cebu placed 26th of 28 APEC cities in the “Building Better Cities: Competitive, Sustainable, and Livable Metropolises” report by PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Toronto in Canada topped the list while Port Moresby in Papua New Guinea got the lowest ranking.

“We hope the report will inspire cities within APEC to collaborate, to borrow best ideas and seek advice on tenacious problems,” the 61-page report released yesterday stated.

The survey used 39 indicators, grouped into five categories – culture and social health, connectivity, health and welfare, environmental sustainability and economics.

Manila and Cebu got their highest scores in culture and social health with 15 and 12, respectively. Manila got nine in connectivity due to its low public transport system ranking. Cebu got two, behind Surabaya in Indonesia, which got the lowest ranking.

Manila received a score of two in health and welfare, three in environmental sustainability – which includes the impact of disasters – and seven in economics. Cebu got three, six and six, respectively.

The report said the Philippines needs to encourage more investments on renewable energy for its environmental sustainability.

Guillermo Luz, co-chairman of the National Competitiveness Council said the report should be used to address the needs of the cities.

“It’s not a report card...We have to rethink to make our cities competitive and safer. One characteristic of that is to have the ability to recover and bounce back after a disaster,” Luz said.