Insufficient information may be to blame for Cebu City’s Super Cities ranking drop

Industry experts said Cebu City’s drop in Tholons’ 2019 Top 100 Super Cities rankings could be blamed on insufficient information about its digital journey. Jonathan de Luzuriaga, president of the Philippine Software Industry Association, said advisory companies may have failed to gather enough information about Cebu and the Philippines’ digital transformation and innovation initiatives. Cebu fell to the 12^th spot in the 2019 Top 100 Super Cities list from the 11^th spot in 2018, while the Philippines dropped to fifth place this year from third place in 2018 in the Top 50 Digital Nations list. Luzuriaga, also the National ICT Councils in the Philippines president, said the ranking drop is “more of the lack of information… more of how we gather information and how we report it.” He believed that the country has had various initiatives to enhance its digital competitiveness but that these have not all been completely reported. Meanwhile, Monchito Ibrahim, the executive adviser to the secretary of the Department of Communications and Technology, said Cebu is doing very well despite the drop but advised that the city should not rest on its laurels. Both Ibrahim and Luzuriaga said the ranking does not have a significant impact on Cebu and the Philippines, as the country has catered to multinational companies within the IT-business process management industry in the past decade.

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