Looking straight at the limitations to help PCI Index break through

According to the results of the 2023 Provincial Competitiveness Index (PCI) recently announced by the Vietnam Federation of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) in collaboration with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Thanh Hoa's PCI has shown signs of recovery after many years of continuous decline. However, the 30th position has not yet met Thanh Hoa's expectations, and these indexes remain at a low score, still showing limitations in management that Thanh Hoa needs to continue to improve further in the coming time.

Civil servants of departments and branches handle administrative procedures for businesses and people at the Thanh Hoa Provincial Public Administration Service Center.

With 66.79 points, Thanh Hoa's PCI Index in 2023 has improved by 17 places. However, Thanh Hoa's PCI is still ranked 30th in the national rankings. Along with important component indicators recording significant improvements in scores compared to the previous year, such as: time costs increased from 6.78 to 8.09 points; government dynamism increased from 6.38 to 7.17 points; business support policies from 6.76 to 7.19 points; informal costs increased from 6.5 to 6.74; market entry from 6.54 to 7.04 points, there are still some component indicators with low increases such as: labor training increased from 5.1 to 5.58 points; transparency from 5.51 to 5.94 points. Along with that, there are 2 other indexes that have decreased: equal competition from 5.31 to 5.0 points; legal institutions and security and order decreased from 7.92 to 7.42.

In particular, the Competitiveness Index is one of the indexes that Thanh Hoa has been at a low level for many years. This index of Thanh Hoa in 2019 reached 4.81 points; in 2020 reached 5.95 points; in 2021 reached 5.70 points; in 2022 reached 5.31 points and in 2023 continued to decrease to 5.0 points. This reflects that the business community has not highly appreciated the efforts of authorities at all levels in creating an equal playing field for businesses in terms of resources, credit, administrative procedures, especially in accessing land. This is also similar to reality, when according to the reflection from businesses, small and micro enterprises operating in the province are still "inferior" and less "favored" in terms of conditions for accessing production resources compared to the leading corporations, large companies in the country, and foreign-invested enterprises.

Along with that, the component index on transparency in 2023 has also only achieved a slight improvement, increasing from 5.51 to 5.94 points. Previously, this component index of Thanh Hoa had never "exceeded the threshold" of 7 points and continuously maintained a low score in recent years, typically: 6.91 points in 2019; 5.34 points in 2020; 6.02 points in 2021; 5.51 points in 2022. Meanwhile, this index is assessed based on 2 aspects: enterprises' access to information and enterprises' opportunities to participate in the process of promulgating policies, commenting on and monitoring policy implementation - 2 very important indexes in building an investment and business environment.

Businesses visit and learn about models and experiences in production and business management.

In fact, with a strong determination to improve the PCI index, Thanh Hoa province has implemented many specific solutions in economic policy management. In particular, since 2021, with the implementation of the Provincial Department, Branch and District People's Committee Competitiveness Index (DDCI), Thanh Hoa has clearly demonstrated the province's viewpoint and strong direction to overcome the situation of "departments, branches and lower-level authorities not properly implementing the policies of provincial leaders" - an aspect in the component index on government dynamism, leading to policies at higher levels not being effectively implemented at lower levels, which has existed for many years in Thanh Hoa.

Speaking at the conference to announce the DDCI Index of Thanh Hoa province in 2023, Mr. Dau Anh Tuan, Standing Committee Member, Deputy General Secretary of the Vietnam Federation of Commerce and Industry, Director of the PCI Project, shared: “In addition to the indicators with good improvements, Thanh Hoa needs to pay special attention to solutions to improve the indicators that are still in the top, which are: Market entry index is ranked 49/63; informal costs ranked 54/63; fair competition ranked 56/63, land access ranked 43/63”...

According to Mr. Tuan, the PCI survey in 2023 recorded a number of difficulties for the environment in Thanh Hoa such as: 63% of enterprises reported difficulties in accessing credit capital; 54% had difficulties in finding customers; 45% reported many market fluctuations; 19% of enterprises reported difficulties due to changes in policies and laws...

The journey to achieve the goal of bringing Thanh Hoa province's PCI Index up, to be among the top 10 localities in the country by 2025 is posing huge challenges, requiring stronger changes and determination, more comprehensive, clearer and more drastic changes in the direction, management and organization of task implementation, especially changes from the grassroots level in the coming time.

Article and photos: Minh Hang

Source: https://baothanhhoa.vn/nhin-thang-han-che-de-dua-chi-so-pci-but-pha-216195.htm