Efforts to improve provincial green index

In 2023, the Provincial Green Index (PGI) announced by the Vietnam Confederation of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) reached 22.29 points, 5.94 points higher than in 2022. However, the ranking was 26/63 provinces and cities, down 17 places compared to the previous year. With the goal of maintaining and upgrading the PGI index in the following years, departments, branches and localities are focusing on implementing many solutions to improve the investment and business environment towards green and sustainable development.

The PGI was first published by VCCI in 2022. This is a useful policy tool to support the Provincial Competitiveness Index (PCI), and to evaluate and rank environmentally friendly localities from a business practice perspective such as the level of application of environmentally friendly technology by local enterprises; the level of environmental management and behavior of enterprises; the level of interest and willingness to invest in environmental issues of local authorities and many other important environmental issues.

In 2022, Vinh Phuc ranked 9th out of 63 provinces and cities nationwide in terms of PGI. The above figures not only demonstrate the province's efforts to protect the environment over many years but also clearly affirm the province's viewpoint of "Not trading the environment for economic development, selectively attracting investment, focusing on solutions to reduce environmental pollution".

Valuetronics Company, Thang Long Industrial Park, Vinh Phuc invests in construction, creating a green, environmentally friendly space. Photo: The Hung

With the goal of maintaining and improving the province's PGI index to be in the top 10 provinces and cities with the leading PGI index in the country in the following years, on July 12, 2023, the Provincial People's Committee issued Plan No. 196 on improving and enhancing the PGI index by 2025.

Accordingly, the province has proposed a group of tasks and specific solutions to improve each component index in the PGI index. It requires departments, branches, sectors, district and commune People's Committees to enhance their roles and responsibilities in maintaining and improving the results and rankings of the province's PGI index; promote propaganda and raise awareness of officials, civil servants and public employees about the meaning and importance of the PGI index.

To realize the above goal, in recent times, the work of propaganda to raise public awareness about environmental protection has always been effectively implemented by departments, branches and sectors.

Along with that, proactively deploy plans to respond to natural disasters and climate change, focus on improving the quality of forecasting and warning of natural disasters; promptly overcome the consequences after natural disasters, reduce the impact on people's lives and the activities of production and business establishments in the area.

At the same time, actively coordinate to develop a plan to organize the implementation of inspection, examination and handling of administrative violations in the field of environmental protection.

Up to now, 100% of industrial parks and some enterprises with high risk of environmental pollution have installed automatic monitoring systems for wastewater and emissions that are continuously connected to management agencies to promptly handle situations.

In particular, the province has reduced by 52% the processing time for procedures for appraisal and approval of environmental impact assessment reports and appraisal of environmental improvement and restoration plans to 30 days (the regulation is 45 days).

Thereby creating favorable conditions, reducing costs, saving time for organizations and individuals when carrying out administrative procedures...

According to the announcement of VCCI, in 2023, 3/4 component indexes of the PGI index will reach the planned target and be in the top 10 provinces with high scores.

Specifically, the index of reducing environmental pollution and negative impacts of climate change (for businesses) reached 7.46 points, an increase of 3.11 points compared to 2022. The index of ensuring compliance with minimum environmental standards reached 6.07 points, an increase of 0.56 points compared to 2022. The index of policies and services to support businesses in environmental protection reached 5.48 points, an increase of 3.46 points compared to 2022.

However, the provincial government's role index in promoting green practices only reached 3.28 points, down 1.2 points compared to 2022, not only failing to meet the plan target but also ranking last among other provinces.

This is the reason why the province's PGI ranking rate decreased by 17 places compared to 2022. The main reason for the decrease in the above index is that domestic and foreign organizations and individuals have not widely implemented green procurement and used environmentally friendly products and services certified with the Vietnam Ecolabel.

Propaganda and guidance activities on production and use of renewable energy; conservation and efficient and economical use of energy; guidance and dissemination of contents related to environmental laws and environmental protection measures have not been highly effective.

To overcome the above shortcomings and limitations, contribute to improving the business investment environment, and upgrade the PGI index, in Notice No. 65, the province announced the conclusion of the provincial leaders at the hearing of the report on PCI, PGI and DDCI results in 2023, stating:

To improve and enhance the quality of the investment and business environment, creating favorable conditions for people and businesses, there needs to be a change in awareness, consulting work and implementation of tasks and solutions.

In particular, focusing on overcoming bottlenecks, bottlenecks, and poor assessments of the service quality of state agencies and the attitude of a number of cadres, civil servants, and public employees that have been reported by businesses.

Regarding the PGI index, the Department of Natural Resources and Environment shall, based on Plan No. 196/KH-UBND, advise and propose the Provincial People's Committee to issue a document directing the improvement of the PGI in 2024, focusing on overcoming shortcomings and limitations of the index of the role of provincial authorities in promoting green practices, while maintaining the scores of other component indices.

Complete the report and draft directive document of the Provincial People's Committee before May 22, 2024 to report at the May 2024 meeting of the Provincial People's Committee.

Red

Source