Mr. Phan Ngoc Tho, Permanent Deputy Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee, visited startup booths |
Component index bettered
In the past 3 years, Thua Thien Hue has always been on the list of provinces and cities with the top PCI nationwide. According to the latest announcement by the Vietnam Confederation of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) about the 2023 PCI and Provincial Green Index (PGI), Thua Thien Hue ranked 8th, continuing to be in the top 10 provinces and cities with the highest ranking nationwide.
This result has yet to reach the target of upgrading the PCI ranking set by the province, specifically taking the PCI ranking of Thua Thien Hue to the top 5 provinces nationwide. However, the component index table shows that many indexes reflected significant improvements in points and rankings. Some indexes can be specified: Market entry index, transparency, time costs, dynamism and pioneering of the government, business support policies, and labor training.
Notably, 2 indexes had breakthrough rankings in 2023 and were highly evaluated by the business community: the government's dynamism and pioneering index reaching 7.02 points, ranking 13th nationwide; the business support policy index reaching 6.45 points, ranking 32nd nationwide. This partly demonstrates that the quality of provincial governance continues to improve more strongly, effectively, and substantially. The provincial solutions aim at enabling businesses to operate more stably and consistently.
Many activities of business connection and support are organized |
The business support policy index can be taken as an example. Despite this index's average ranking nationwide, against 2022, the provincial index increased by 17 places, confirming that the province's proposed reforms and solutions have been well implemented by the department concerned and recognized, and highly evaluated by the business community.
Worthy of note is that the government's dynamism and pioneering index in 2023 also increased by 0.31 points against 2022, up 21 places and ranking 13 out of 63 provinces and cities nationwide. The increase of 21 places on the PCI ranking during the whole country's average point of the component index of pioneering dynamism of the local government apparatus in 2023 showing signs of decline against previous years (the 3rd-year consecutive decline in points) has demonstrated the province's efforts in constantly implementing the solutions for improving the government's dynamism and pioneering index.
Specifically, when taking account of the 9 sub-indexes of this index, Thua Thien Hue has up to 6 indexes higher than the national average and positively evaluated such as 1. The proportion of businesses agreeing with the evaluation "The guidelines and policies by the province and city on facilitating business operations are stable and consistent", ranked 5/63; 2. The Provincial People's Committee is dynamic and creative in solving newly-arising problems, ranked 24/63; 3. The proportion of businesses agreeing with the evaluation "The Provincial People's Committee is flexible within the legal framework to create a favorable business environment", ranked 25/63; 4. The proportion of businesses assessing the provincial government's attitude towards the private sector as positive, ranked 27/63.
In addition, the province's reaction indexes when there are unclear points in the Central policies/documents: "Delaying implementation and seeking guidance" and "doing nothing". The businesses rank "Departments and branches that do not properly implement the guidelines and policies by the provincial leaders" 16th and 18th respectively and are in the top 20 provinces and cities with positive evaluations of the dynamism and pioneering of the government.
Businesses accompanied
Maintaining the PCI in the good group of the country for 3 years on end partly reflects the efforts by Thua Thien Hue Province to improve the investment and business environment recently.
Taking account of the province's business support activities in recent times, we can partly witness the local efforts in accompanying businesses. According to the evaluation by the Agency of Enterprise Development, Ministry of Planning and Investment, "Thua Thien Hue is the leading locality nationwide in promulgating the policies to increase support for businesses to access the State policies, to remove barriers and increase competitiveness for businesses operating in production and business in the province."
The Provincial People's Committee is also determined to remove difficulties for projects by effectively maintaining 4 working groups to supervise and manage investment projects led by the Chairman and 3 Vice Chairmen of the Provincial People's Committee in order to direct, urge, inspect, supervise, handle problems, and accelerate the implementation of projects within and outside the budget, boost the disbursement of public investment capital.
Besides, as a counselor and supporter of investors, in recent years the Center for Investment Promotion and Enterprise Support under the Provincial Department of Planning and Investment has also made a big contribution to minimizing the fact that businesses have to manage on their own to carry out administrative procedures relevant to the project and supported in removing obstacles that the project encounters to speed up progress.
Recently, the Prime Minister has decided to establish the Thua Thien Hue Province Center for Investment-Trade Promotion and Enterprise Support to support businesses, and boost investment-trade promotion across the province.
According to the leaders of the Department of Planning and Investment, the province identifies businesses as important subjects of the economy. Accordingly, many local activities of support and accompaniment are always business-oriented and business-centered. This prepares the ground for upgrading indexes, not the PCI alone.
Also, to create a step forward in upgrading the indexes and realize the target of increasing the PCI ranking in the top 5 and belonging to the "good group" nationwide, aside from strengthening the activities of accompanying, supporting businesses, etc, the province has been assigning each department, branch, and locality to undertake the task of improving the ranking of each detailed index.
The departments, branches, and localities concerned must work out detailed plans to improve the ranking of each index assigned to the unit. This is seen as the foundation for enhancing the quality of management, creating synchronization and consistency from the province to departments and branches, spreading the spirit of accompaniment and support for businesses to each officer in charge of contacting and approaching businesses, etc.