Bacolod City remains in the Top 100 Super Cities of Tholons Services Globalization Index 2017 report despite a slide from 85th rank to 97th this year.
This year, Tholons introduced digital and innovation as a new metric in addition to workforce and skills, infrastructure and cost, risk and quality of life, and business catalyst to evaluate location attractiveness. The new criteria looks into the number of start-ups, start-up diversity, start-up ecosystem and government incentives to promote entrepreneurship and digital transformation in the nations and cities being ranked.
Bacolod was recognized as a Center of Excellence on IT-BPM in 2013 and entered the Tholons’ Top 100 Outsourcing Cities in 2010. This is the first time that Bacolod dropped in rankings ever since it was included in the list.
Despite the drop in ranking, Atty. Jocelle Bapata-Sigue, Executive Director of the Bacolod-Negros Federation for ICT (BNEFIT) sees this as a validation of the council’s efforts towards developing the stratup ecosystem. This is also a challenge for more collaborative works among the stakeholders especially on startups and digital innovations.
Tholons report also ranked the Top 50 Digital Nations. The Philippines was overtaken by China in the second place and slid down to third place in the Top 50 Digital Nations. Digital and innovation has shaken up the rankings, challenged outsourcing industry leaders, and introduces new key players in rankings.
Aside from Bacolod, other Philippine cities, including Manila, Cebu, Sta. Rosa and Davao, have also dropped in rankings this year. Manila dropped from the second spot to fourth spot in the Top 100 Super Cities. From 8th rank, Cebu slid to 12th, Davao dropped from rank 69 to 85 and Sta. Rosa from 82nd to 100th place. Metro Clark and the cities of Iloilo and Dumaguete have been dropped out of the Top 100 Super Cities this year.
Tholons’ report also noted that digital is disrupting industries and businesses must embrace digital technologies and platforms like social media, mobile technology, cognitive computing, cloud, and artificial intelligence.