The Standing Vice Chairman of Nghe An Provincial People's Council noted to avoid subjective thinking when perceiving the role of the PCI index.

Standing Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Council Nguyen Nam Dinh noted that it is necessary to avoid the mindset that despite low PCI, Nghe An still attracts good FDI, has high growth, and exceeds budget revenue targets. This perception can easily lead to the thought that "enterprises need the province more than the province needs enterprises", while on the contrary, the government must be receptive, create a favorable environment, and focus on enterprise development to promote sustainable growth.

Scene of the question and answer session. Photo: Thanh Cuong

On the morning of July 10, the 31st Session of the 18th Nghe An Provincial People's Council held a question and answer session.

Comrades: Hoang Nghia Hieu - Standing Deputy Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee, Chairman of the Provincial People's Council; Nguyen Nam Dinh - Member of the Standing Committee of the Provincial Party Committee, Standing Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Council; Nguyen Nhu Khoi - Member of the Provincial Party Executive Committee, Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Council chaired the meeting.

Raising awareness of the political system, business community and society about the role of the PCI Index

The Provincial People's Council questioned the implementation of mechanisms and policies to improve the investment and business environment, remove difficulties for enterprises; overcome limitations and improve the Provincial Competitiveness Index (PCI).

On behalf of the chair of this content, comrade Nguyen Nam Dinh - Member of the Provincial Party Standing Committee, Permanent Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Council delivered a concluding speech, evaluating the results achieved by the province in implementing the Project to improve and enhance the PCI index; at the same time, reviewing the shortcomings and limitations, especially the contents pointed out through questioning.

Comrade Nguyen Nam Dinh - Member of the Provincial Party Standing Committee, Permanent Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Council concluded the questioning of a group of issues on implementing mechanisms and policies to improve the investment and business environment, remove difficulties for enterprises; overcome limitations and improve the Provincial Competitiveness Index (PCI). Photo: Thanh Cuong

Accordingly, Nghe An's total PCI score has changed over the past time, but its ranking is unstable. In 2021, the province achieved 64.74 points, ranked 30th nationwide; In 2022, it achieved 66.60 points, ranked 23rd nationwide, up 1.86 points, up 7 places compared to 2021; In 2023, it achieved 65.72 points, ranked 44th nationwide, down 0.88 points, down 14 places compared to 2021; In 2024, it achieved 66.48 points, ranked 44th nationwide, up 0.76 points, maintaining the same ranking as in 2023.

The PCI index of Nghe An province in 2024 is still relatively far behind the top provinces and cities in the country: 8.36 points lower than Hai Phong (top 1), Ba Ria - Vung Tau (top 5) 4.69 points, Hung Yen (top 10) 3.76 points...

Provincial People's Council delegates at the question and answer session. Photo: Thanh Cuong

In addition, the province still lacks clean land for investors; the infrastructure is not yet synchronized, there is still a large gap with major economic centers, especially in deep-water ports and logistics. The business environment is not equal, and unofficial costs are still high. In particular, the criteria for tax inspection time is up to 56 hours/session, more than double the national average. Labor quality is still unstable, in recent years there has been a shortage in quantity, while the demand of FDI enterprises has increased.

Referring to the tasks and solutions for the coming time, Standing Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Council Nguyen Nam Dinh requested the Provincial People's Committee to continue to thoroughly grasp and raise awareness of the political system, business community and society about the role of the PCI Index.

This is not only a "health measure" of the business community, especially private enterprises, but also a channel providing information for the government to improve governance and management of socio-economic development.

Together with indexes such as PAR Index, SIPAS, PAPI or Green Growth Index, PCI forms a comprehensive picture of the government's management capacity and the quality of the local business investment environment.

“If we can improve the PCI, we can improve the investment and business environment,” said the Standing Vice Chairman of the Provincial People’s Council, noting that this is also the index that investors are first interested in when learning about the investment environment of each locality; therefore, it is necessary to improve the quality and ranking of the PCI Index to attract resources to meet the development goals of the province.

He also noted that it is necessary to avoid the subjective thinking that although the PCI Index is low, Nghe An has still attracted good FDI in recent years, budget revenue has exceeded the set target; public investment disbursement and economic growth rate are still high.

This perception easily leads to the idea that “enterprises and investors need the province more than the province needs enterprises and investors”; while in reality, the opposite is needed, the government always needs to be open-minded, creating a favorable environment for businesses to develop; especially in the context that the Politburo has issued a Resolution on private economic development, which identifies “the private economy as the most important driving force of the national economy”.

Nurture and support local businesses to develop, mature and become strong.

On the other hand, from current practice and with a long-term vision towards sustainable development, Standing Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Council Nguyen Nam Dinh continued to emphasize the urgency of improving the PCI Index in a substantial and effective manner, in order to raise the level and create development momentum for the provincial business sector, which currently has up to 95% small and micro enterprises.

He pointed out that economic growth cannot forever rely solely on public investment or foreign direct investment (FDI). When production costs increase, FDI capital flows can completely shift to other areas with more competitive advantages.

At that time, the enterprises in the province were the important support force to help maintain and stabilize the local economy. Therefore, it was necessary to proactively set out the problem of nurturing and supporting Nghe An enterprises to gradually develop, mature and become stronger.

Provincial People's Council delegates at the question and answer session. Photo: Thanh Cuong

In addition, the Standing Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Council also requested the Provincial People's Committee to direct departments, branches and sectors to closely follow the tasks and solutions for socio-economic development management to specify and direct agencies and localities to organize implementation; especially groups of tasks and solutions that directly impact increasing the score and ranking of the PCI Index such as: Removing difficulties for enterprises; enhancing investment attraction, management of resources, land and minerals; improving the effectiveness and efficiency of administrative reform...

In particular, he suggested paying special attention to solutions to improve the component indexes with high weights but low rankings such as: Transparency (ranked 59th), Time cost (ranked 59th), Fair competition (ranked 58th); Labor training (ranked 55th).

The implementation of these groups of tasks needs to be more drastic in the context of the transformation of the local government model from 3 levels to 2 levels. The requirement is to make the 2-level government closer to the people, and to accompany the people, businesses and business households more effectively.

According to Nguyen Nam Dinh, Standing Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Council, when investors evaluate the investment and business environment, they look at the whole country, not just at a single locality. Therefore, provinces with the PCI Index in the leading group are often the preferred destinations.

From the above reality, he emphasized: Nghe An needs to clearly position the province's PCI Index ranking in relation to 34 provinces and centrally-run cities and provinces and cities in the North Central region.

Along with that, the Provincial People's Committee updated the system of criteria and methods for evaluating the Department, Sector and Local Competitiveness Index (DDCI), ensuring consistency with the new organizational structure after merging departments and switching to a 2-level local government model.

This is an important basis to continue to properly assess the actual operating capacity and effectiveness of serving businesses and people of each unit, thereby having appropriate and timely improvement solutions.

Source: https://baonghean.vn/pho-chu-tich-thuong-truc-hdnd-tinh-nghe-an-luu-y-tranh-tu-duy-chu-quan-khi-nhan-thuc-ve-vai-tro-cua-chi-so-pci-10301989.html