On July 19, 2010 the city government of Batangas received two (awards), the Entrepreneur's Award for Most Honest and Transparent in its Dealings and the Most Supportive to Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises among the nation's growth center cities from the Asian Institute of Managment (AIM) - Policy Center in collaboration with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the German Technical Cooperation Agency (GTZ). The plaques were received by Engr. Januario Godoy, City Planning and Development Coordinator, who represented the Honorable Mayor Vilma Abaya Dimacuha in the awarding ceremony.

Engr. January B. Godoy presented the two awards to City Mayor Vilma Abaya Dimacuha and the former City Mayor Educardo B. Dimacuha during the City Government Employee's Day held on July 20, 2010. He disclosed that Batangas City was one of the ten (10) top cities recognized on the growth center category. In CY 2009, the AIM-Policy Center chose 30 cities from all over the nation wherein Batangas City was included among the top (10) cities in the growth center category along with Bacolod, Baguio, Cagayan de Oro, General Santos, Mandaue, Lapu-Lapu, Zamboanga, Olongapo and Iloilo. The other two categories are the emerging cities and metro-growth center. The criteria that were adopted by the AIM-Policy Center in considering the cities in the three categories are its population and capabiltiy to raise local categories.

The criteria for choosing the awardees were bsed on the drivers of competitiveness which include dynamism of local economy, responsiveness of local government unit to business needs, infrastructure, quality of life, cost of doing business and human resources & training. The search is being conducted every 3 years by the AIM-Policy Center among Philippine cities in diffrente categories.

In 2005, Batangas City was hailed as one of the Top 5 Most Competitive Philippine Cities on the medium-size cities category.