According to the Provincial Competitiveness Index (PCI) 2022, Kien Giang province ranked 56th out of 63 provinces and cities, scoring 62.24 points, climbing four places over 2021. This was the third consecutive time the province advanced on the PCI rankings. Although the advancement was not huge, the performance also clearly showed the resolve and continuous effort of provincial leaders in speeding up administrative reforms, improving the investment and business climate and creating the best working conditions for businesses and investors.
Kien Giang Provincial People's Committee organizes a dialogue conference, fostering collaboration and understanding between the provincial authorities and local businesses
Optimistic signals
To improve the PCI Index, the Provincial People's Committee has synchronously launched many solutions to accelerate administrative reform and improve the investment and business climate. The committee issued Plan 211/KH-UBND dated August 24, 2023 on raising and upgrading the Public Administration Reform Index (PAR Index), the Satisfaction Index of Public Administrative Services (SIPAS), the Provincial Competitiveness Index (PCI), the Provincial Green Index (PGI) and the Vietnam Provincial Governance and Public Administration Performance Index (PAPI) in the province. It also issued a plan for SME support to 2025, including technology support, human resource development; innovative startups; and industrial clusters and value chains.
The dynamism and innovation in directing administrative reform, improving the business investment environment and raising the PCI Index are clearly demonstrated through the leadership of the Provincial People's Committee with different scenarios to adapt to new situations; through the timely and effective implementation of business support policies to provide the most favorable conditions for businesses and investors. Every year, the committee organizes dialogue conferences with businesses (two a year) to promptly remove difficulties and obstacles within its jurisdiction to build close and friendly relationship between the government and businesses; directs departments, branches and localities to resolve matters within their authority or synthesize matters beyond their authority to propose them to competent authorities for consideration and resolution.
In addition, the Provincial People's Committee directs departments, branches and local district/city governments to monitor those matters and advise it to effectively apply solutions to raise the PCI Index and improve the favorable investment and business environment; actively grasp situations and promptly remove hindrances and effectively support businesses and investors.
To upgrade the PCI Index, Kien Giang established a steering committee for PCI improvement, led by the Chairperson of the Provincial People's Committee. The province boosted communications to raise the awareness to public employees and the business community about the importance of upgrading the PCI Index, thus enhancing the sense of responsibility of public employees, especially agency leaders, in carrying out their duties. The province regularly directed relevant agencies and localities to advise the Provincial People's Committee to analyze and evaluate PCI improvements and introduce solutions to address limitations.
Every year, the Provincial People's Committee directs the Investment, Trade and Tourism Promotion Center to coordinate with the Department of Planning and Investment to make a report on Kien Giang PCI Index performance and solutions for stronger performance. The committee is directing the center to coordinate with consultants to draft a PCI improvement project to 2025, with a vision to 2030.
The dynamism and innovation in directing and managing local socioeconomic development is clearly illustrated by the leadership of Kien Giang Provincial People's Committee with different scenarios to adapt to new situations; by the effective implementation of business support policies to provide the most favorable conditions for businesses and investors. Therefore, it helped lead Kien Giang to the group of positive growing provinces and cities in 2022. The province achieved positive social and economic recovery, with all 24 indicators equal or better than the targets. The per capita GRDP was VND66.24 million, 8% higher than the target.
Engaged by the entire political system, in 2022, the province's PCI Index scored 62.24 points, an increase of 2.51 points from 2021, to rank 56th out of 63 provinces and cities nationwide and 11th out of 13 Mekong Delta provinces. Although the outcome did not come as expected (65 points or more and returning to the group of good performers), some encouraging results were achieved (four places higher than in 2021, advancing two places in Mekong Delta standing) and some subindices performed well (such as fair competition and market entry cost). Another bright spot was a good improvement of all component indices. Particularly, equal competition, market entry and business support indices were highly appreciated by the business community.
Determined to become a good PCI performer
In 2023, Kien Giang targeted to increase its PCI score and ranking, getting at least 67 points and returning to the group of good PCI performers in the country. To achieve its goals, the province advocated synchronous and effective solutions to tackle three groups of issues with the highest determination: Administrative reform, Openness and transparency, and Accountability. In particular, the province paid special attention to strengthening the role and responsibility of leaders in directing and inspecting administrative disciplines; seriously handled personal responsibility and leader responsibility; built and improved the quality of public employees with businesses and people placed at the heart.
The Special Working Group of the Provincial People's Committee (Working Group 1602) worked well to remove obstacles and effectively support businesses, investors, and investment projects in the province (Group 1602). The Working Group of the Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee worked better to inspect the implementation of directive tasks and conclusions of the Provincial People's Committee, the Chairperson and Vice Chairpersons of the Provincial People's Committee (Group 770) to promptly propose and praise units that did well; and rectify units that performed their tasks slowly. The province improved the quality of dialogues with the business community, publicized post-dialogue results, increased theme-based business meetings and dialogues; diversified information channels to reflect, receive and respond in resolving business recommendations.
Regarding responsibility assigned to specific agencies, the Provincial People's Committee assigned the Investment, Trade and Tourism Promotion Center to coordinate with relevant agencies and localities to promptly advise the Provincial People's Committee to work out a PCI improvement project to 2025 and further to 2030; advise the committee on implementation of the District and Department Competitiveness Index (DDCI); and coordinate with the Department of Home Affairs and relevant bodies to synergize efforts for the better performance of PCI Index, DDCI Index and PAR Index.
The provincial government designated the Department of Natural Resources and Environment to coordinate with the Department of Planning and Investment, the Investment, Trade and Tourism Promotion Center and related bodies, localities and units to promptly counsel the Provincial People's Committee to develop a plan for application of the PGI Index in 2023 and beyond; allotted the Department of Information and Communications to work with the Investment, Trade and Tourism Promotion Center and relevant bodies to regularly inform and disseminate indicators, images and results social and economic administration of the province to raise the awareness of civil servants, businesses and people; assigned the Department of Planning and Investment to coordinate with the Department of Home Affairs and trade associations to review and advise the Provincial People's Committee to perfect the apparatus to attract more reputable businesses and entrepreneurs to join trade associations; actively worked with related agencies and localities to spread PCI, DDCI and PGI indices for businesses to better understand and give right scores when surveyed.
Trade associations necessarily cooperated with agencies and localities to widely inform local businesses of PCI, DDCI and PGI indices.
With its resolution and practical actions, with the consensus of leaders at all levels and branches and the business community along with the active support of the central government, Kien Giang province will soon address bottlenecks in administrative procedure reform, thus further enhancing the appeal of the investment and business environment and improving competitiveness to become an ideal destination for domestic and foreign investors.
By Cong Luan, Vietnam Business Forum
Vietnamese
October 2024
Hanoi