How to improve Da Nang’s performance at the annual Provincial Competitiveness Index (PCI) has still been a big challenge facing the city to date.

The growth of businesses helps to considerably accelerate the city’s progress,

Last month, a seminar entitled ‘Improving Da Nang’s PCI rankings’, took place right after the announcement of the 2017 PCI report, in a bid to seek innovative ways to help this centrally-governed city to remedy any existing shortcoming to make considerable improvements in its annual PCI rankings.

From the perspective of local businesses, the city authorities have always focused on issuing preferential policies but their implementation usually faces some obstacles.

Of note, the 2017 PCI result showed the city saw the point of ‘transparency’, which is the most important criterion, fall to its lowest in 5 years.

Meanwhile, according to a representative from the municipal Department of Planning and Investment, all the businesses of different types operating in the city have always been treated fairly.

Also, they have the same access to the city’s land lease policies or tax incentives applicable to investment projects in industrial parks, hi-tech and IT parks.

In reality, there is not any policy bias in favour of foreign-invested firms in the city at all. 

Mr Le Tri Hai, the Vice Chairman of the municipal Young Entrepreneurs’ Association remarked that an inspection is one of the most common sorts of review practices found in software projects with the goal of the inspection is to identify defects.

Hai added that it is a good idea to effectively apply such useful model in State management mechanisms

to ensure that once a certain policy is issued, it will be implemented, tested and evaluated, thereby valuable lessons will be gained during the implementation process.

In his opinions about the criterion of ‘transparency’, Mr Huynh Tan Vinh, Chairman of the Da Nang Tourism Association, stressed the need for the city authorities to enhance the level of information transparency and consider this to be a good tool to tackle such negative phenomena as authoritatism, harassment and even corruption. It is the fact that all of them might cause difficulties and troubles for the handling of administrative procedures for businesses.

For example, the provision of bidding information should be widely publicised in an objective, accurate, timely and transparent manner.

Information is provided systematically, is linked and in chronological order, in accordance with the national law.

A representative from the municipal Department of Justice suggested that businesses should be allowed to freely contribute their constructive ideas and recommendations about local policies, especially those regarding business and investment activities.

Mr Le Minh Phuc, the General Director of VinaCapital Da Nang cum Deputy Head of the Da Nang FDI Businesses’ Club, proposed that relevant local agencies should make joint efforts to debut the specific, step-by-step guidance for the deployment of investment projects, especially large-scale ones.

According to the Da Nang Institute of Socio-Economic Development, one of the best ways to improve the city’s PCI rankings is that more favourable conditions should be created for businesses so that they can have easier access to loans and business premises in order to expand their production activities.

In his closing speech at a seminar earlier this month, municipal Party Committee Secretary Truong Quang Nghia underlined the importance of improving transparency and access to information, reduce informal charges and create equitable competitive environment.

The purpose is to help the city improve its PCI ranking and effectively implement its key campaign ‘2018: The Year of Investment Promotion’.

The city Party chief highlighted the significance of ensuring closer links between the local authorities and the business community because the growth of businesses considerably accelerate the city’s progress, or in other words, they are dubbed as the cornerstone of prosperity in society.