On the morning of July 10, the 31st Session of the 18th Nghe An Provincial People's Council entered the question and answer session.
Comrades: Hoang Nghia Hieu - Standing Deputy Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee, Chairman of the Provincial People's Council; Nguyen Nam Dinh - Member of the Standing Committee of the Provincial Party Committee, Standing Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Council; Nguyen Nhu Khoi - Member of the Provincial Party Executive Committee, Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Council chaired the meeting.
Why PCI lacks breakthroughs?
The Provincial People's Council questioned the implementation of mechanisms and policies to improve the investment and business environment, remove difficulties for enterprises; overcome limitations and improve the Provincial Competitiveness Index (PCI).
The main respondent is Director of the Department of Finance Trinh Thanh Hai. Leaders of relevant departments and branches respond to matters within their authority.
This is one of the issues that voters and the business community are interested in, as the PCI results in 2024 continue to show positive aspects mixed with limitations, requiring authorities at all levels to take more drastic and substantial actions.
According to the report presented at the meeting, in 2024, Nghe An will achieve 66.48 PCI points, a slight increase of 0.76 points compared to 2023. However, the province still maintains its 44th/63rd position on the national rankings, a result that has many delegates wondering.
Although it has maintained its 3rd position in the North Central region, behind Thua Thien Hue (now Hue City) and Thanh Hoa, the gap between Nghe An and the leading provinces is quite large. Compared to Hai Phong province, the leading locality in the country, Nghe An is 8.36 points behind; compared to Ba Ria - Vung Tau (top 5), it is 4.69 points behind.
Among the 10 component indices, the province has 2 indices with high rankings: Business Support Policy and Land Access, both ranked 7th. In particular, the Land Access Index has made a leap forward, increasing 48 places compared to 2023, thanks to the time for granting Land Use Right Certificates being shortened from 30 days to 12 days; the rate of enterprises not encountering obstacles in expanding premises increased from 27% to 41%; the lack of clean land funds has significantly improved. This is a positive sign, demonstrating the government's efforts in removing infrastructure bottlenecks for investors.
Along with that, the indicators of Legal Institutions and Security and Order, Informal Costs and Market Entry also changed. The rate of enterprises having to pay “unofficial” costs for some administrative procedures decreased compared to the national average, a signal showing that the work of rectifying discipline and fighting corruption has initially had an effect.
However, the PCI picture of Nghe An this year still has gray tones. A series of important indexes decreased in both score and ranking. The Transparency Index, which is the foundation of a healthy investment environment, dropped 51 places, ranking 59/63.
The Labor Training Index also continued to decline, ranking 55th nationwide. Only 34% of businesses assessed that local labor meets their needs well, much lower than the national average of 54%). The shortage of skilled labor, especially in the manufacturing industry, continues to be a major obstacle to investment capital flows.
Many delegates also raised concerns about the quality of administrative reform as the Time Cost Index continued to decline. 2024 was the third consecutive year that Nghe An dropped in this criterion. The percentage of businesses saying that digital administrative procedures help save time and costs was lower than the national median.
More worrying is the lack of consistency in policy implementation. According to the PCI survey results, only 19% of businesses believe that the province's policies and guidelines on facilitating business operations are stable and consistent, a sharp decrease from 42% last year. Up to 68% of businesses assessed that the district and town governments (old) did not properly implement the policies and guidelines of the provincial leaders.
From a long-term perspective, after more than a decade of implementing the PCI Improvement Project, the province’s scores have shown a steady upward trend. However, the lack of uniformity among the component indicators has led to a lack of breakthroughs and a decline in rankings in recent years, posing more urgent reform requirements.
(Baonghean.vn continues to update)
Source: https://baonghean.vn/hdnd-nghe-an-chat-van-trach-nhiem-cai-thien-moi-truong-dau-tu-nang-thu-hang-pci-10301970.html
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