Da Nang finished 2^nd in the Viet Nam’s PCI for 2017 with 70.11 points, after Quang Ninh Province-the most competitive locality in the country last year. Previously, Da Nang had topped PCI ranking for 4 consecutive years from 2013 to 2016. Despite stilled being in the ‘excellent tier’, Da Nang has seen a few improvements in their scores over recent years. 

‘Transparency’ plays a vital role in businesses’ progress

PCI has been a critical tool for measuring and assessing the standards of economic governance in 64 provinces nationwide from the perspective of private sector businesses.

The overall PCI index score comprises 10 sub-indices, namely market entry costs, land access, transparency, time costs, informal charges, equitable competitive environment, proactive leadership, business support services, labour training, and legal institutions, with each accounting for 10 points, all of which reflect economic governance areas that affect private sector development.

In particular, the 2017 PCI report shows that Da Nang made remarkable improvements in the criteria of ‘land access’, ‘business support services’, ‘time costs’, ‘labour training’, and ‘legal institutions’. 

Despite being 0.58 points behind first place winner Quang Ninh, Da Nang was highly appreciated by domestic private firms for its effective handling of administrative procedures.

Employees working at the city-based Asian Tech company

Over recent years, numerous effective measures have been taken by the city authorities to give more assistance to businesses to expand their investment and production activities.

The focus has been on issuing a coordination mechanism between the local departments and agencies for dealing with administrative procedures relating to investment, business registration, and urban building and management aspects.

In addition, administrative procedures relating to taxes, lands, construction and customs have been simplified, whilst the time taken to deal with these procedures has been shortened. Hence, the city authorities have won the trust of the business community.

However, there are some shortcomings in the management of business environment in the city.
Five sub-indices performed by Da Nang in 2017 were lowered than in 2016. These are ‘market entry costs’, ‘transparency’, ‘informal charges’, ‘proactive leadership’ and ‘equitable competitive environment’.

Of note, the point of ‘transparency’, which is the most important criterion, fell to its lowest in 5 years.

In reality, once local businesses have access to sufficient information on the city-issued policies, and infrastructure and land use plans, they will find it easier to outline their long-term business orientations.

Mr Nguyen Phu Thai, the Director of Da Nang Institute of Socio-Economic Development, said the lack of ‘transparency’ might lead to such negative phenomena as authoritatism, harassment, even corruption, which all cause difficulties and troubles for the handling of administrative procedures for businesses.