Fresh from being included in the top ten of Vietnam’s provincial competitiveness index (PCI) ranking for the first time in 2018 at the ninth place, Hanoi has set the target of higher rank in 2019.
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“Hanoi’s ranking has been consistently going up in six consecutive years, up 41 places from the 51st in 2012 to the ninth in 2018,” said Nguyen Doan Toan, vice chairman of the Hanoi People’s Committee, at the 2018 PCI report launching ceremony on March 28.
For Hanoi, the recognition would serve as motivation to enhance governance capability for better business and investment environments, Toan added, referring to previous remark of Chairman of the Hanoi People’s Committee Nguyen Duc Chung that the satisfaction of enterprises and citizens has been identified as the gauge in the governance of the local government..
Recently, Hanoi has pushed forward for simplifying 61 administrative procedures under seven fields of state management, reaching the rate of 23.3% of all administrative procedures.
Moreover, Hanoi has also been the first city to implement the inter-level one-stop-shop mechanism for smooth and transparent public services.
Starting July 2017, Hanoi has waived the cost of setting up new businesses through online application and provided training courses for individual households on start-up and corporate governance, while 100% applications for business registration has now been processed online.
Notably, Hanoi has maintained the lead as Vietnam’s top foreign investment destination in the first quarter of 2019, reaching US$4.15 billion of FDI commitments, or 38.4% of the total investment inflow to the country.
As of present, Hanoi has a total of 260,379 enterprises, averaging 22,000 – 24,000 newly established enterprises per year.
Tran Ngoc Nam, deputy director of the municipal Department of Planning and Investment, said Hanoi has given priority to addressing concerns of the business community, adding the city holds monthly meeting with the attendance of Hanoi’s leaders to timely support enterprises.
According to Nam, in 2018, Hanoi has stepped up efforts in promoting dialogues between enterprises and authority at district and commune levels, which is one of the main reasons behind the capital’s high ranking in PCI 2018.
To support innovative startups and enterprises development, Hanoi has put into operation an online portal serving as a platform to connect start-ups with foreign investors.
Aiming for perfection
Under Hanoi’s plan number 78 implementing measures to improve the PCI 2019 ranking with vision to 2021, Hanoi strives to have 80% of all administrative procedures processed online; maintain the business online registration rate of 100%; online tax declaration rate above 98%; custom clearance time for export below five hours and import below 21 hours.
Graded 9th in the PCI 2018 ranking with 65.40 points out of the maximum of 100, the result has exceeded original target of Hanoi being included in top 10 PCI index ranking by 2020 set by the municipal People Council.
However, there remains large room for improvement, as Vice Chairman Toan said all provinces must target a closer gap to the 100 points by 2020.
In the coming time, Hanoi would continue to reform legal framework, aiming to reduce administrative costs for enterprises and applying IT in public services.
Among the 10 PCI key indicators, Hanoi is determined to maintain its high score in training highly qualified human resources, supporting services for enterprises and transparency in management and planning.
For such efforts, Chairman of the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) Vu Tien Loc pointed out Hanoi is gradually realizing its potential as one of Vietnam’s economic hubs and also of the ASEAN in the future.
