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, the leading locality in the country, Nghe An is 8.36 points behind; compared to Ba Ria - Vung Tau (top 5), Nghe An 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 is still gray. Many important indicators have 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.
Classify and process business records into 3 streams: green, yellow, red
At the question and answer session on this content, 12 delegates asked 14 questions, focusing on improving the investment and business environment of Nghe An province, especially improving low indicators.
Responding to delegate Nguyen Duc Hong (Delegate Group No. 8) about strengths, weaknesses and solutions to continue improving the investment and business environment, Director of the Department of Finance Trinh Thanh Hai said: Nghe An possesses many special advantages for development.
Notably, the institutional advantage is given great attention by the Central Government, demonstrated through the promulgation of a series of specific mechanisms and policies such as Resolution 39 of the Politburo on the construction and development of Nghe An province to 2030, with a vision to 2045; Resolutions 36 and 137 of the National Assembly on piloting and supplementing a number of specific mechanisms and policies for the development of Nghe An province. These are very important legal bases and foundations, creating a wide space for the province to attract investment and develop breakthroughs.
Along with that, Nghe An has a strategic geographical location, being both the center of the North Central region and converging all types of infrastructure: airport, seaport, railway station, and national highway system connecting across the region.
However, in addition to the advantages, the province's investment and business environment still has some bottlenecks that hinder sustainable development and attract large capital flows such as: Limited land space for industrial development, incomplete logistics infrastructure, lack of synchronous connectivity, notably the lack of a deep-water seaport capable of receiving large tonnage ships, Vinh airport is currently being renovated and upgraded; the growth model is not really clear; the province's digital transformation platform, although it has taken initial steps, is still not synchronously connected.
Faced with that situation, Nghe An province has identified breakthrough directions and solutions to strongly improve the investment environment, emphasizing maximizing existing advantages and superior institutions, taking advantage of special mechanisms to create a different attraction, and being more competitive in attracting investment compared to other localities in the region.
At the same time, the province focuses on key and targeted investments, leading public investment and activating private investment; removing infrastructure bottlenecks, especially deep-water seaports, and transforming the growth model towards green growth and circular economy, taking the Western Nghe An region as the center of sustainable development. At the same time, promoting comprehensive digital transformation in the spirit of Resolution 57 of the Politburo.
In addition, the province focuses on developing the private economy according to Resolution No. 68-NQ/TW on private economic development of the Politburo, Resolution No. 198/2025/QH15 of the National Assembly on a number of special mechanisms and policies for private economic development.
Regarding this issue, answering the question of delegate Le Thi Kim Chung (Delegate Group No. 5), the head of the provincial Finance sector said: Currently, the unit has coordinated with departments and branches to complete the draft Plan of the Provincial Party Executive Committee to implement Resolution 68 and is in the process of reviewing and approving.
In parallel, the draft implementation plan of the Provincial People's Committee has also been developed with 8 groups of key tasks and solutions. In particular, focusing on innovation in thinking, correctly recognizing the role and position of the private economy in the economy; approaching the direction of a creative and serving government, promoting institutional reform, creating a more favorable environment for businesses, especially small and medium enterprises.
The plan also emphasizes connecting the private economic sector with the innovation ecosystem, gradually participating in the global value chain; at the same time, enhancing access to capital, land, technology and high-quality human resources for businesses. This is identified as the key content and pillar in the Action Plan of the Provincial Party Committee and the Provincial People's Committee to promote the development of the private economic sector to become an important driving force of the local economy.
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Also in the spirit of supporting and creating a favorable environment for the development of the private economy, answering the question of delegate Le Thi Theu (Delegate Group No. 10) about whether or not there is preferential treatment for large enterprises compared to small and medium enterprises, in the context of Nghe An's 2024 Competitiveness Index ranking 58/63 provinces and cities, Director of the Department of Finance Trinh Thanh Hai affirmed: The province's management policy is consistent, there is no discrimination based on type or size of enterprise. Small and medium enterprises even enjoy more incentives, such as a simple accounting regime, and support policies under the Law on Support for Small and Medium Enterprises.
However, he also frankly pointed out two main reasons why small and medium enterprises feel like they are being "inferior" to large enterprises. Firstly, in designing policies or periodic management reports, the province tends to name large enterprises and large projects, so small enterprises easily feel left out or not given due attention.
Second, many small businesses lack a legal department and access to policy information, leading to a lack of understanding or inability to take advantage of current support policies from the State and the province. This not only creates a gap in accessing opportunities but also increases the feeling of being "left behind".
To improve the Competitive Equity Index, an important indicator reflecting the level of fairness in access to policies and resources among business types, Mr. Trinh Thanh Hai said that the province will focus on a number of key solutions. First of all, it is to publicize and make transparent information on planning, land, investment procedures and preferential policies on digital platforms, so that all businesses, regardless of size, can easily monitor and access them.
In addition, the province also focuses on more effectively implementing preferential policies on land tax, access to finance and accounting for small enterprises, while encouraging the connection model between small and medium enterprises and large enterprises, helping small enterprises participate more deeply in the global value chain, increase competitiveness and expand the market.
With the same spirit of openness, companionship and creating the most favorable conditions for businesses to prosper and Nghe An to develop, Director of the Department of Finance Trinh Thanh Hai, in answering questions from delegates, clearly stated specific solutions to improve PCI component indexes, especially those indexes that are at low levels.
Among the PCI component indicators in 2024 that need to be improved is the Time Cost Index, ranked 59/63 provinces and cities nationwide, down 0.83 points and 7 places compared to 2023. This content also received special attention from delegate Ho Thi Thuy Trang (Delegate Group No. 6), who requested that the relevant agencies analyze the causes and propose solutions, especially in the context of the 2-level local government model being in the early stages of operation.
Director of Nghe An Department of Finance Trinh Thanh Hai said that the drop in rankings of some component indexes in PCI, especially the law compliance cost index, stemmed from three main reasons.
First of all, the current legal system is still complicated and lacks uniformity, with many procedures related to many different sets of laws, causing delays in implementation and difficulties for businesses. Second, the documents sent by businesses are incomplete, leading to the need to supplement them many times, wasting processing time and affecting the progress of procedures. Third, the human factor comes from a group of officials and civil servants.
Mr. Trinh Thanh Hai said that the industry is synchronously implementing solutions to improve this index in a practical and sustainable way. One of the important innovations is to reorganize the processing procedure in a parallel and simplified manner, meaning that the previous step is not completed before the next step as before. Instead, relevant departments will coordinate to simultaneously resolve many stages, in order to shorten the time for processing procedures as much as possible.
The industry will also apply a mechanism to classify input documents right from the reception stage: documents that meet the full requirements (green channel) will be processed immediately; documents that need to be supplemented (yellow channel) will have specific instructions for businesses to complete in the shortest time; and documents that do not meet the requirements (red channel) will be returned with a clear reason. This classification not only helps reduce processing pressure at the next stages, but also increases transparency and fairness in the process of handling administrative documents.
In parallel, software will be built and operated to monitor the process of handling official documents. This software allows tracking of progress and specific responsibilities of each officer in charge, helping leaders at all levels to promptly correct any delays or unexplained blockages.
Notably, according to the financial sector's review data, the average time for tax inspections and audits in Nghe An is currently 56 hours/session, while the national average is 24 hours/session. This is one of the reasons why businesses feel inconvenienced, and at the same time reduces the evaluation score of informal costs and convenience in law compliance of the province. The Director of Nghe An Department of Finance also said that it is necessary to innovate the frequency and shorten the time of inspections and audits.
Also related to this content, answering delegate Nguyen Hong Son (Delegate Group No. 17), Mr. Trinh Thanh Hai said that he had anticipated difficulties in improving the PCI Index when the new 2-level local government model was in the early stages of operation. Therefore, to overcome this, the province focused on 3 key solutions including: guiding and training for commune-level officials and civil servants; establishing a flexible monitoring mechanism, initially dividing regions and fields, and moving towards building an application to monitor the procedure processing process including: input, output, implementers, progress; supplementing and updating to evaluate departments, branches and communes through the Department, Branch and Local Competitiveness Index (DDCI).
In addition, a very important issue according to the Director of Nghe An Department of Finance is to improve the effectiveness of survey and assessment of the PCI Index. In fact, in 2024, the number of surveyed enterprises in Nghe An was 1,796 (accounting for 3.8% of the whole country, accounting for 10.75% of the number of enterprises operating in the whole province); of the enterprises that were surveyed, only 173 enterprises responded (reaching a rate of 9.6% of surveyed enterprises, accounting for 2% of the whole country and accounting for 1.03% of the total number of enterprises operating in the whole province).
The low response rate of businesses when surveyed by PCI raises many questions for both the government and the survey unit. Therefore, Mr. Trinh Thanh Hai believes that there needs to be more effective coordination between the parties in the survey process, while still ensuring the key principle of respecting the independence and objectivity of the investigation. Specifically, he proposed considering the selection of survey subjects and the time of implementation to be more suitable to the actual production and business activities of enterprises. In addition, a key point emphasized by Mr. Trinh Thanh Hai is to improve the quality of government services at the grassroots level, where businesses have the most and most frequent contact.
In addition, opinions related to the fields of Agriculture and Environment, Home Affairs, and Justice were answered and explained specifically by the Directors of the above departments.
Source: https://baonghean.vn/hdnd-tinh-nghe-an-chat-van-trach-nhiem-cai-thien-moi-truong-dau-tu-nang-thu-hang-pci-10301970.html
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