The city drops to 5th place in PCI 2018 ranking
Da Nang has finished 5th in Viet Nam’s Provincial Competitiveness Index (PCI) for 2018 with only 67.65 points on a 100-point scale.
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| City finishes 5th in PCI 2018 ranking |
The results were announced by the Viet Nam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) and the US Agency for International Development (USAID) at a ceremony held in Ha Noi this morning (28 March).
Quang Ninh Province has secured its top position in the 20178 PCI ranking with impressive score of 70.36 points, followed by Dong Thap with 70.19 points, Long An 68.09 and Ben Tre 67.67.
Meanwhile, Da Nang, Binh Duong, Quang Nam, Vinh Long, Ha Noi and Ho Chi Minh City together lied in the top 10 localities.
The city has slipped out of the country’s top 3 most competitive localities for the first time since 2014.
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.
Amongst these sub-indices, the 2018 PCI report shows that Da Nang made remarkable improvements in the criteria of ‘land access’ (from 7.11 to 7.23 points) and ‘informal charges’ (from 6.29 to 6.54 points) against 2017. Notably, these are the two sub-indices that Da Nang has achieved the highest scores over the past 5 years.
As for the ‘market entry costs’ sub-indice, the city only gained 7.94 points, down 0.61 against 2017. This has been the city’s lowest point of this sub-indice since 2011.
Of note, the point of ‘transparency’, which is the most important criterion, slightly decreased by 0.14. This is the 4th consecutive year that the point of this sub-indice has dropped.
Like a wise, the points of ‘time costs’, ‘equitable competitive environment’, ‘labour training’, and ‘legal institutions and order security’ slightly decreased against 2017. However, the point of ‘labour training’ still topped the country.
Notably, the point of ‘proactive leadership’ felt to its lowest to only 5.96 since 2005.
Moreover, the point of ‘business support services’ declined by 0.63 compared with the previous year.
The 2018 PCI report shows that Da Nang was highly appreciated by domestic private firms for significantly reducing informal costs, but the handling of administrative procedures for them was not effective.
Some domestic businesses also complained the leadership gap between the municipal and district authorities was grown.
The 2018 PCI survey revealed an optimism amongst domestic private and foreign businesses regarding their economic prospects. 49% of the surveyed domestic firms and 56% of the surveyed FDI enterprises said they planned to expand their operations in the next 2 years.