Last year, Quang Ninh, for thefirst time ever, became the most competitive province in the country, toppingVietnam’s PCI 2017, with 70.7 out of 100 points.
Long asked provincial departments,sectors, and localities to avoid idleness just because of the results achieved,and instead continue with reforms. He urged that they stay vigilant, findinginnovative solutions to achieve the targets set by the Government’s resolutionon continuing the implementation of main tasks and measures to improve thebusiness environment and the provincial People’s Committee’s plan issued onApril 17.
Related agencies and ViceChairpersons of the provincial People’s Committee should find measures toimprove indexes, particularly in terms of transparency, informal expenses,legal institutions, and land access.
He urged public centres at alllevels to solve administrative procedures as soon as possible.
Localities, departments, andsectors were also requested to make information connections to the provinciale-portal to raise publicity and transparency.
The leader asked the provincialBusiness Association to coordinate well with departments, sectors, and localitiesin implementing measures to improve the business and investment environment andcompetitiveness, and in supporting startup enterprises and forming industrialclusters.
Taking ideas from the PCI, the provincelaunched the Department and District Competitiveness Index (DDCI) in 2015.
The index measures the efficiencyof economic management of the local government through eight criteria,including transparency, proactivity of leadership, time costs of regulatorycompliance, informal charges, policy bias, legal institutions, business supportand accountability of leaders.
The DDCI was officiallyimplemented in 21 departments and 14 localities across the province in 2016,according to deputy head of the provincial board for investment promotion andsupport Vu Thi Kim Chi.
The programme helps the provinceidentify shortcomings and improve the quality of economic governance of localauthorities and departments, Chi said, adding that this creates competition onmanagement quality and aids administrative reform.
Furthermore, the DDCI creates awidespread, transparent and reliable channel for businesses and investors togive feedback to local authorities and increases the role and responsibility ofthe business community in building a local management apparatus.
After two years ofimplementation, the programme has brought positive outcomes. Businesses arerequired to build annual action programmes on improving investment environment,the PCI and DDCI.
The province only attracted 3.39billion USD in the 15 years from 1986 to 2011. However, foreign directinvestment (FDI) poured into Quang Ninh in 2012-2017 exceeded 3 billion USD,raising total foreign investment to the locality to more than 6 billion USD,Chi said.
The presence of major investorsat home and abroad such as the US, Japan, Singapore and Thailand has createdstrong momentum for the local economy, she added.
The province has taken measuresto reform administrative procedures, reduce production costs for businesses andcreate an environment for them to enhance competitiveness.
Every three months, local authoritiesmeet with enterprises to note their opinions and remove bottlenecks.
In 2017, the province piloted theimplementation of social network analysis in 16 agencies, expanding interactionwith the business community, according to Chi.
Speaking at a recent conferenceon evaluating the local Public Administrative Reform (PAR Index), SatisfactionIndex of Public Administration Services (SIPAS), and Public AdministrationPerformance Index (PAPI) in 2017, Secretary of the provincial Party CommitteeNguyen Van Doc said the province will further its efforts to hastenadministrative reform in 2018.
“Quang Ninh will continuouslywork to maintain its position among the top performers of those indexes,” hesaid.
He instructed sectors andbranches to press ahead with administrative procedure reforms, enhance theefficiency of public administrative centres, cut unnecessary administrativeprocedures, complete e-Government apparatus and pay provide training for publicservants.
The PCI report has been producedannually since 2005 to assess the ease of doing business, economic governanceand administrative reform efforts by provinces and cities in Vietnam.
The 2017 PCI Report is the 13th iteration and is based on responses from 12,000enterprises, including more than 10,200 domestic private enterprises from 63cities and provinces and nearly 1,800 foreign invested enterprises in 21provinces nationwide.
According to the report, QuangNinh was followed closely by central Da Nang city (70.1 points). The MekongDelta province of Dong Thap ranked third with 68.8 points.–VNA