Provincial Competitiveness Index 2023 (PCI 2023): In times of difficulty, businesses put their trust in the government
Sending a message that difficulties are still great, businesses rely more on the dynamism of local authorities.
 |
When the “business thermometer” is very low
Standing behind the hall of the Hanoi Opera House at the PCI 2023 announcement ceremony, Mr. Luu Cong Thanh, Chairman of the Quang Ninh Young Entrepreneurs Association, attentively listened to the speech of the leader of the No. 1 PCI 2023 position. This is the 7th time that Quang Ninh has ranked first, and for the same number of years, members of the Quang Ninh Young Entrepreneurs Association have given positive scores to the local government, but Mr. Thanh continues to wait for new messages from the local government leaders.
“The more difficult the business environment is, the more the government’s support and assistance will ease the burden on businesses. Sometimes, simply by having leaders of departments and branches come to business meetings with the government, listen and find ways to solve difficulties for businesses there, as Quang Ninh has done for many years, or the problems of small and large businesses are equally cared for and solved, businesses feel much warmer,” Mr. Thanh shared.
The difficult reality was clearly reflected in the PCI 2023 survey. Only 27% of private enterprises said they would expand their operations in the next two years, down significantly from 35% in 2022.
Analyzing this figure, Mr. Dau Anh Tuan, Deputy General Secretary of the Vietnam Federation of Commerce and Industry (VCCI), Head of the PCI Research Group, emphasized that this figure of 27% is also lower than the previous bottom in 2012-2013 when the Vietnamese economy faced the double impact of the global financial crisis and domestic macroeconomic instability.
The survey data also showed that the proportion of businesses planning to reduce the scale of business or close down in the 2023 survey was up to 16.2%. This figure is significantly higher than the 10.7% recorded in the 2022 survey and close to the record high of 16.6% in the 2021 survey - when Vietnam was at the epicenter of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The reasons for the difficulties, according to a survey of more than 9,000 private enterprises, are still access to credit, finding customers, market fluctuations... In particular, policy and legal fluctuations continue to be among the main difficulties listed by enterprises when participating in the PCI 2023 survey.
The PCI research team considers this a point to note, even though it only ranks 6th out of 15 difficulties for businesses. Because the survey figure for 2023 has increased compared to 2022 (9.5%), interrupting the downward trend of this indicator in the years 2018-2022. Next, this indicator has increased by about 5.1 percentage points compared to the previous year. This is the second largest increase among the survey contents in 2023. This sign may be the result of policy fluctuations in the management of the petroleum, electricity, and bond markets in the past year...
 |
Pressure from higher business expectations
In the speech of Mr. Cao Tuong Huy, Chairman of Quang Ninh Provincial People's Committee at the PCI 2023 announcement ceremony, there was a sentence: "Gaining the trust of businesses is difficult, but maintaining, nurturing and continuing to raise it to new heights is even more difficult".
This is a diplomatic message, often seen in the statements of the No. 1 position in the rankings, but this time, the leaders of Quang Ninh feel more clearly the pressure and difficulties. Although firmly in the top position, the scores of Quang Ninh and Hai Phong - continuing to maintain the 3rd position, are no longer as good as before. This year, Quang Ninh scored 71.25 points, lower than the 72.95 points of PCI 2022. Hai Phong recorded 70.34 points compared to 70.76 points in 2022.
In fact, the decrease in scores is not limited to just 1 or 2 localities. Mr. Dau Anh Tuan even saw a slowdown in the provinces leading the PCI. Specifically, the score of the leading province in 2023 was only 71.25 points with the composite PCI index and 77.33 points with the original PCI index, respectively decreasing by 1.7 points and 3.32 points of each PCI measure compared to 2022.
“The leading provinces are facing great pressure to be more creative in creating a favorable investment and business environment while maintaining effective reform efforts in the context of many provinces in the following group rising strongly,” Mr. Tuan explained.
It is necessary to clarify that the PCI Index measures the quality of economic management of provincial governments in 10 important areas for the development of enterprises in the private economic sector. This requires localities that want to stay in the rankings to have synchronous improvements in many contents, from administrative procedures to supporting enterprises in accessing land, legal support, labor training, etc.
Sharing with reporters of Investment Newspaper, Mr. Tran Quoc Van, Chairman of Hung Yen Provincial People's Committee admitted that it is not easy to achieve improvement, when the difficulties of enterprises are not easy to solve, often beyond the authority of local authorities...
"As we committed, businesses coming to Hung Yen will have land, difficulties will have to be resolved..., but it is true that the whole system must be involved to make it happen," said Mr. Van.
This year, Hung Yen increased by 2 ranks, ranking 12th in PCI 2023. The goal of entering the Top 10 of this locality has been set, but Mr. Van said, it is really pressure.
Voices of the localities at the bottom of the table
In PCI 2023, although there is no name due to the announcement method stopping at Top 30, the localities in the bottom half of the PCI rankings are not anonymous.
According to VCCI, the PCI score of the province at the end of 2023 (61.37 points) has increased significantly (1.79 points) compared to the province at the end of PCI 2022 (59.58 points). The PCI score of the province at the end of PCI 2023 has exceeded 60 points for the first time and is the highest in 18 years of building and publishing the PCI index nationwide.
Reinforcing this signal, the Research Team mentioned that the baseline PCI score of the province ranked last in the 2023 survey (51.67 points) also increased by 0.95 points compared to 2022 and was the highest ever.
“In the past 10 years, the provinces in the following group have improved the quality of economic management to make a breakthrough. These provinces may have taken advantage of the ‘latecomer advantage’ when they can learn and apply successful lessons from the group of provinces with higher quality management,” Mr. Tuan clarified.
This may explain the appearance of new faces in the PCI Top 30 in 2023 such as Hai Duong, Binh Thuan, Ninh Binh, Tay Ninh, Dak Nong, Ca Mau, Tien Giang and Thanh Hoa. Even the breakthrough of new Top 10, such as Ben Tre, Hau Giang and Phu Tho are also typical cases in the effort to accompany businesses.
Message about the dynamic and pioneering spirit of cadres
In fact, there is no comprehensive index to evaluate the dynamism, pioneering, daring to think, daring to do of the government, but the component index on the dynamism and pioneering of the government apparatus in PCI 2023 shows the feeling, but also the message that businesses send to local leaders and the Government.
“Businesses really look forward to the spirit of daring to think and daring to do of officials, as the Prime Minister committed in his meetings with the business community,” Mr. Tuan said when referring to the declining score of dynamism and pioneering in PCI 2023.
Specifically, 51.5% of enterprises commented that "departments and branches do not properly implement the policies of provincial and municipal leaders", a slight increase from 50.4% in 2022. In 2023, up to 44.7% of enterprises observed the phenomenon of "district and town authorities not properly implementing the policies of provincial and municipal leaders", a slight decrease from 45.2% in 2022.
Notably, only 40.8% of businesses observed that "the policies and guidelines of the province and city on facilitating business operations are stable and consistent" in 2023, a significant decrease from 50% in 2022 and 53.4% in 2021...
Although down slightly from 76.9% in 2022, the percentage of businesses that believe local leaders have taken action to implement commitments to improve the business environment in 2023 still reached 74.5%. This shows that, in this difficult time, businesses are placing their trust in the actions of authorities at all levels.
“We are confident that both businesses and localities benefit when the business environment is truly friendly, open, and fair,” Mr. Thanh shared.
Source: https://baodautu.vn/index-nang-luc-canh-tranh-cap-tinh-2023-pci-2023-trong-kho-khan-doanh-nghiep-dat-niem-tin-vao-chinh-quyen-d214765.html
Comment (0)