Binh Dinh’s Provincial Competitiveness Index (PCI) was ranked 20th among 63 provinces and cities last year. This falls short of expectations. What must be done to improve the province’s business environment and its PCI ranking? The workshop on PCI was co-organized by Binh Dinh People’s Committee and Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s (VCCI) Da Nang branch to answer the question.
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At the workshop on PCI
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1. Many regulations on administrative reform have been implemented in Binh Dinh, let alone documents aiming to explicit administrative procedures. The “one-door” mechanism was also set up in 2007, helping people easily set up their own businesses.
The local authorities have actively cooperated with each other to resolve any difficulties and simplify all formalities. However, the province’s efforts couldn’t catch up with other provinces’ improvements. Its administrative reform and the simplification for investment procedures are not enough.
Binh Dinh has not fully access a long-term strategy for highly-skilled workers, reliable and stable legal system and infrastructure improvement.
The province has not also met many legitimate demands of businesses, such as the compensation, land acquisition, and resettlement areas. The issues partly make the province’s business environment less attractive and competitive.
In 2010, Binh Dinh ranked 20th among 63 provinces and cities, dropping 13 places from 2009, according to the VCCI report. Among 9 criteria used to evaluate the PCI, Binh Dinh only saw an improvement in business support services while the “proactivity of provincial leadership” and “time costs” sharply dropped.
Also, the report revealed that the “labor training” and “legal institutions” had almost no changes.
2. The workshop was held, aiming to work out measures to improve Binh Dinh’s PCI and its business environment in the coming years.
At the workshop, most participants agreed that businesses should be seen as the province’s partners in the socio-economic development process.
The province must focus on building infrastructure, resolving any difficulties in mechanism and policies and improving the explicitness, helping business access essential plans and legal documents.
VCCI’s experts said the private economic sector will be badly affected if the explicitness has no improvement as the more explicit the business environment is, the more belief the province will get from businesses.
The businesses will, thus, feel secure when they decide to propose long-term investment strategies. Alongside this, Binh Dinh should also open more training courses for its staff.
The province is advised to define its strategic vision for project planning and orientation towards production and business sectors, basing on the local advantages.
Speaking at the workshop, provincial Chairman Le Huu Loc emphasized that the PCI ranking is an important tool to measure the province’s management capacity.
He asked relevant bodies and local authorities to soon build specific plans, aiming to propose timely policies for the improvement of business environment to better serve businesses.
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