Every country needs to develop a growing and dynamic economy in a sustainable way to achieve its economic and social objectives. National or local economies grow to the extent in which constant efforts are made to build conditions to increase investment and generate concrete business and job opportunities. The basic condition for accomplishing this is the competitiveness or continuous improvement of the abilities and skills of actors and processes to facilitate their increasing market positioning.
The economic growth of a country, however, is not more that the sum of the growth of their territories, and of those, the growth of their population. In this regard, countries need to promote the development of competitive and dynamic territories that attract and retain investment and generate greater business and job opportunities, fostering the best quality of life for their populations and guiding the territories towards local economic development.
With this vision in mind, in 2009 the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), within the framework of its Promoting Economic Opportunities Program supported the implementation of the Municipal Competitiveness Index Project known as MCI 2009. The Project was executed by RTI International and the Escuela Superior de Economía y Negocios, ESEN.