Ho Chi Minh City racing to upgrade PCI ranking by 2025

Accelerating reform , taking enterprises as the center

The Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee has just issued a plan to upgrade the Provincial Competitiveness Index (PCI) in 2025. The city has determined that improving PCI is not only an administrative task but also a measure of governance quality and service capacity for people and businesses.

Accordingly, the City requires each department, branch, and locality to review and immediately fix weak indicators, especially in areas that businesses often report such as: investment procedures, land access, transparency, informal costs, and support for small and medium enterprises.

Vice Chairman of the City People's Committee Bui Xuan Cuong said that Ho Chi Minh City does not aim to simply "race for position", but wants to create a real change in the quality of management. "Improving PCI must come from the satisfaction of the people, businesses and trust in the apparatus", Mr. Cuong emphasized.

Many indicators still have "negative points"

According to a report by the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI), in 2024, Ho Chi Minh City ranked 20th out of 63 provinces and cities in terms of PCI — lower than expected given its economic size and leading role in the country. Some component indicators such as "Informal costs", "Land access" and "Legal institutions" are still at an average level.

Enterprises reflect that the process of processing investment, construction, bidding and tax documents still takes a lot of time. Some stages still have a situation of shifting responsibility between agencies. In addition, digital transformation in handling administrative procedures is not uniform among departments and branches, making the experience of enterprises not really seamless.

The city aims to move up at least 10 places on the national PCI rankings by 2025. To achieve this, Ho Chi Minh City will focus on improving the component indices of "Government dynamism", "Time cost" and "Transparency".

Digital government and service culture

A new point in the PCI 2025 upgrade plan is to require units to publicly disclose the results of handling records in real time, increasing transparency in handling procedures. At the same time, the City assigned the Department of Home Affairs to coordinate with the Department of Information and Communications to complete the online assessment system for satisfaction of people and businesses.

The city is also promoting comprehensive digital transformation in public management activities. 100% of administrative procedures at the city level and 80% at the grassroots level will be provided in the digital environment. The submission, receipt and response of documents will be synchronized through a shared data platform.

In addition to digital infrastructure, Ho Chi Minh City emphasizes the "human" factor - building a public service culture that is service-oriented, not troublesome. Leaders of administrative agencies will be evaluated and ranked annually based on the level of improvement in the PCI index of the responsible unit.

"To improve the PCI ranking, we must start with the attitude and responsibility of each civil servant. When people and businesses see the change, the ranking will automatically increase," said Vice Chairman of the City People's Committee Bui Xuan Cuong.

The city will expand regular dialogue channels between government leaders and the business community, especially in the fields of industry, trade, logistics and innovation. Problems in planning, land, construction licensing, bidding and taxation will be handled under the "one contact - one decision" mechanism.

At the same time, the City assigned the Investment and Trade Promotion Center (ITPC) to act as a focal point to support start-ups and small and medium-sized enterprises in accessing capital, market information and participating in the global supply chain.

📊 BOX: SOME TARGETS OF HO CHI MINH CITY IN 2025:

- Increase at least 10 places in the national PCI rankings
- Reduce 30% of administrative procedure processing time compared to 2024
- 100% of investment records are processed online, progress is made public
- Business satisfaction rate reaches over 90%
- 100% of officials and civil servants signed a commitment to responsibility for upgrading PCI ranking

Source: https://vtv.vn/tp-ho-chi-minh-chay-dua-nang-hang-pci-2025-100251004103933095.htm