Quang Ninh retains top spot in PCI 2020 Rankings
VOV.VN - The northern province of Quang Ninh continues to maintain its ranking at the top of the Provincial Competitiveness Index (PCI) for 2020 following a joint announcement made on April 15 by the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) and the Agency for International Development of the United States (USAID).
Quang Ninh has led the rankings for four consecutive years with a combined PCI score reaching 75.09 points in 2020, followed by the Mekong Delta provinces of Dong Thap (72.8 points) and Long An (70.37 points).
Most notably, Quang Ninh represents the sole locality among 63 provinces and cities nationwide to surpass the 75-point mark in terms of the PCI results since 2010.
Other provinces that have also made the top 10 localities in the PCI rankings include Binh Duong (70.16 points), Da Nang (70.12 points), Vinh Long (69.34 points), Hai Phong (69.27 points), Ben Tre (69.08 points), Hanoi (66.93 points), and Bac Ninh (66.74 points).
Dau Anh Tuan, head of the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI)’s Department of Legal Affairs, said Binh Duong has witnessed strong levels of improvement in recent times. Local businesses provide positive assessments regarding their market entry, business support, the completion of a one-stop shop mechanism to facilitate business registration, and concise investment procedures for investors.
The PCI 2020 report has been designed based on feedback from roughly 12,300 enterprises, of which over 10,700 private enterprises are operating across 63 localities and approximately 1,600 foreign-invested enterprises (FDI) are running business in 22 localities nationwide.
According to the PCI 2020 survey, the quality of economic governance at a provincial level has seen significant improvement in recent times. Indeed, positive signs can be seen in the decline of unofficial costs, greater efforts being made in maintaining security and order, whilst improving administrative reforms and the fairness of the business environment.
Despite these positives, the survey’s results indicate that local administrations should continue working to improve the transparency of the local business climate, boost the quality of law enforcement by administrations at the grassroots levels, accelerate administrative reforms and reduce unofficial costs faced by businesses.
Vu Tien Loc, president of the VCCI, said he believes that 2020 marked a particularly difficult year for the national economy as the COVID-19 pandemic has forced many businesses to lay off employees and caused them to suffer huge revenue losses.
To help the business community weather the crisis, the Government has introduced numerous support policies, including tax deferral and extension of land rent, bringing a range of practical benefits for local businesses, Loc noted.
The results of the PCI 2020 survey also prove that Vietnamese businesses remain resilient and highly adaptable to the consequences of the pandemic.
The survey’s results by FDI enterprises indicate that Vietnam will continue to represent an attractive investment destination for financiers owing to factors such as political stability, simplified administrative procedures, and reduced unofficial fees.
Most notably, foreign investors anticipate that the country will continue to combat corruption, improve the quality of public service delivery, fine-tune the system of procedures, whilst drastically upgrading the quality of local infrastructure.
