Hanoi (VNA) – Taking ideas from theprovincial competitiveness index (PCI), the northeastern province of Quang Ninhlaunched the Department and District Competitiveness Index (DDCI) in 2015.

The index measures the efficiency of economic management ofthe local government through eight criteria, including transparency,proactivity of leadership, time costs of regulatory compliance, informalcharges, policy bias, legal institutions, business support and accountabilityof leaders.

The DDCI was officially implemented in 21departments and 14 localities across the province in 2016, according to deputyhead of the provincial department for investment promotion and support Vu ThiKim Chi.

The programme helps the province identifyshortcomings and improve the quality of economic governance of localauthorities and departments, Chi said, adding that this creates competition on managementquality and aids administrative reform.

Furthermore, the DDCI creates a widespread,transparent and reliable channel for businesses and investors to give feedbackto local authorities and increases the role and responsibility of the businesscommunity in building a local management apparatus.

After two years of implementation, the programmehas brought positive outcomes. Businesses are required to build annual actionprogrammes on improving investment environment, the PCI and DDCI.

Quang Ninh, for the first time, became the most competitivelocality in the country, topping the PCI 2017.

The province only attracted 3.39 billion USD inthe 15 years from 1986 to 2011. However, foreign direct investment (FDI) pouredinto Quang Ninh in 2012-2017 exceeded 3 billion USD, raising total foreigninvestment to the locality to more than 6 billion USD, Chi said.

The presence of major investors at home andabroad such as the US, Japan, Singapore and Thailand has created strongmomentum for the local economy, she added.

The province has taken measures to reformadministrative procedures, reduce production costs for businesses and create anenvironment for them to enhance competitiveness.

Every three months, local authorities meet withenterprises to note their opinions and remove bottlenecks.

In 2017, the province piloted the implementationof social network analysis in 16 agencies, expanding interaction with thebusiness community, according to Chi.

Speaking at a recent conference on evaluatingthe local Public Administrative Reform (PAR Index), Satisfaction Index ofPublic Administration Services (SIPAS), and Public Administration PerformanceIndex (PAPI) in 2017, Secretary of the provincial Party Committee Nguyen VanDoc said the province will further its efforts to hasten administrative reformin 2018.

”Quang Ninh will continuously work to maintainits position among the top performers of those indexes,” he said.

He instructed sectors and branches to pressahead with administrative procedure reforms, enhance the efficiency of publicadministrative centres, cut unnecessary administrative procedures, completee-government apparatus and pay provide training for public servants.

In the PCI 2017 report launched by the VietnamChamber of Commerce and Industry and the US Agency for International Developmentin March 2018, Quang Ninh gained the top score of 70.7 on a 100 point scale.

The report has been produced annually since 2005 to assessthe ease of doing business, economic governance and administrative reformefforts by provinces and cities in Vietnam.
The 2017 PCI Report is the 13th iteration and is based onresponses from 12,000 enterprises, including more than 10,200 domestic privateenterprises from 63 cities and provinces and nearly 1,800 foreign investedenterprises in 21 provinces nationwide.

According to the report, Quang Ninh was followedclosely by central Da Nang city (70.1 points). The Mekong Delta province ofDong Thap ranked third with 68.8 points.-VNA