Center Power Tech Vietnam Co., Ltd. located in Nhon Trach 2 Industrial Park (Nhon Trach District) expands its production line.
According to Vietnam Chamber of Industry and Trade, PCI is a set of scores assessing the quality of management at provincial level from the perspective of private companies. This will be an important source of information for investors to refer to when selecting investment locations.
Besides, this instrument contributes a way to convey the satisfaction of Vietnamese private companies about administrative procedures, quality of management, the operation of the government from province level down to lower levels.
Many indicators are highly evaluated
The PCI assesses the quality of investment environment of a locality through 10 component indicators by scoring. In 2018, Dong Nai has 5 aspects that had increased scores which are: market entry, time costs, unofficial costs, fair competition, and legal institutions.
The above results were achieved due to all levels of management and authority Province to its Communes and Wards having made great efforts in improving the investment environment and supporting companies to have smoother operation.
The component scores constitutes the PCI index of Dong Nai in 2017 and 2018.
Mr. Cao Tien Sy, Head of the Dong Nai Industrial Zones Authority, said: “the PCI 2018, despite staying at the same level as the previous year, has increased in total scores earned. The investment environment of the Province continues to be improved and highly appreciated by companies, so 0domestic and foreign investment attraction of the Province last year is higher than our plan."
The 2018 PCI survey results showed that Dong Nai achieved 63.84 point, ranked as good. Compared to the 2017 PCI survey results, it increased by 0.69 point.
Among the 5 improved aspects, unofficial costs was the most impressive with an increase of nearly 1.8 point. This proves that Dong Nai has employed practical measures to support companies in cutting down and reducing costs. Many companies had the opinion that the "harassment" that they had to go through when dealing with procedures, unofficial costs that they had to pay upon inspections and biddings... has been significantly reduced. "Japanese companies could invest in Dong Nai without hassle, all difficulties have been promptly removed by the Province, so there have been more and more Japanese companies coming to the Province to invest" - Mr. Kadowaki Keiichi, Chairman of Japanese Commerce and Industry of Ho Chi Minh City said.
Chairman of the People’s Committee of the Province Mr. Dinh Quoc Thai emphasized: “Dong Nai will strictly handle harassment cases in which officials and employees trying to harass companies and people. Companies that experience harassment can report their cases directly to the management of the Province for resolution.3
The administrative reform has also had many positive changes, such as: the time for implementing procedures has been shortened compared to the regulations, officials have been efficient and friendly, so they have gathered the good attention and trust from the business community.
The 2018 time cost score also rose. The judicial reform of the Province has achieved certain results, increasing the companies' trust in the authorities on the judicial system, courts and police, thus helping boost the legal institution score by 0.41 point to reach 6.18 point. The companies that were asked said that the Province lowered the priority of attracting FDI so the FDI companies became more equal to the private companies. Therefore, the fair competition score increased and was highly regarded.
Why did 5 aspects have their scores dropped?
In addition to the achievements, PCI 2018 also pointed out aspects such as of land access, transparency, dynamism, business support and labor training all had their scores decreased. The reason is due to land ownership, access to land, inspection, tax examination, quality of market search service, legal information, financial accounting, business administration, science – technology... has not changed much, which reduced the PCI score. For example, the land access aspect score dropped because of the lack of clean land fund, slow compensation when it came to land clearance and the information on land was not provided in a timely manner.
Mr. Thai Minh Quang, General Director of Ho Nai Industrial Park Joint Stock Company (Trang Bom District) said: “The company has about 100 hectares to be recovered to complete Ho Nai Industrial Park Stage 1 and 2. However because the land clearance compensation is slow, the project lasts for many years, causing difficulties for companies in terms of infrastructure construction ”.
The score transparency aspect was not high because it was still hard for companies to gain access to construction plan, traffic plan and legal documents. About 62% of the surveyed companies thought that it was necessary to have a "relationship" to obtain the above documents. As for company support, surveyed companies stated that they cut down on the use of legal information consulting services, trade promotion service, science - technology, support, business partner finding services, market information services, financial accounting training services, business administration... This is a measure that relevant departments and agencies can use to adjust and improve the quality of the aforementioned services.
Focus on improving
After the PCI 2018 was announced, the People’s Committee of the Province directed departments, agencies and localities in and of the Province to review the relevant aspects, analyze reasonable and unreasonable aspects. Thereby, each agency develops a specific action plan and solution associated with its service to create a roadmap to overcome the limitations and continue to improve the quality of public services and provide positive support to the companies. The Province will supervise and urge departments, agencies and localities to publish legal documents of both the central and provincial government so that investors can easily gain access to said documents, thus raising the score of the dynamism aspect.
The public administration centers of the Province shall continue to improve the time-cost aspect, unofficial cost aspect, ensuring time reduction in administrative procedures, and help cut down unofficial expenses. Train and manage civil servants and officials in guiding people and companies to perform procedures in a professional manner with a friendly attitude.
Vice Chairman of the People’s Committee of the Province Mr. Tran Van Vinh emphasized: "Dong Nai will continue to construct e-government to shorten the time, travel costs, minimize and prevent harassment occurred in administrative procedures. Publicize all guidelines, policies, plans, provide support to small and medium companies in terms of policies and capital to expand production, business in order to raise the fair competition and market integration scores”.
The People’s Committee of the Province has assigned the Department of Natural Resources and Environment to implement specific solutions to simplify procedures related to land, effectively solve the land access problem for the companies, especially small and super small companies. Other departments and agencies must also have specific solutions to improve the aspects related to their units.
Mr. Tran Ngoc Liem, Deputy Director of Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Ho Chi Minh City branch said, Dong Nai ranks among the top 5 most developed provinces and cities in the country. The investment environment of the Province is highly regarded by the companies, but if it is improved even further, then it will receive more investments from other countries.
