Chairman of the Bac Giang province People’s Committee (centre) chairs the workshop.

The event was chaired by Chairman of the provincial People’s Committee Nguyen Van Linh, and attended by representatives from the Party Central Committee’s Economic Commission, the VCCI, the Institute for Socio-economic Development Studies of Bac Ninh province, business associations of Vinh Phuc, Tuyen Quang and Phu Tho provinces, and local departments and agencies, and People’s Committees and the provincial Business Association.

Asynchronous implementation

A representative from the Bac Giang provincial Department of Planning and Investment said that the locality always exerts effort to improve the investment climate to attract more investors by synchronous measures.

Notably, in 2016, the provincial Party Committee issued Resolution No.73-NQ/TU on improving the business and investment environment during 2016-2020. Considering it one of the breakthrough measures for socio-economic development, the People’s Committee built a specific plan on the implementation of the resolution, the official stated.

Once a month, the Chairman of the provincial People’s Committee meets local enterprises to know their aspirations and help them solve difficulties. Bac Giang’s Provincial Competitiveness Index (PCI) has been improved, climbing seven steps to the 33rd out of 63 provinces and cities in 2016 from the 40th place in 2015. 

During 2014-2016, the province attracted over 500 investment projects with 359 domestic projects worth 23.5 trillion VND (1.03 billion USD) and 151 foreign-invested ones totalling over 1 billion USD. The locality attracted 138 projects in the first eight months of this year.

Participants agreed that the results achieved have not matched the province’s potential and advantages. Pham Ngoc Thach, deputy director the VCCI’s Legal Department, said: “The reason behind the situation is barriers for businesses. A survey of the VCCI shows that local enterprises still have to pay unofficial costs, while dense inspections also annoy businesses.” According to him, steering measures of provincial leaders are drastic, but the implementation in many departments, agencies and localities are slow, which is a factor causing the low PCI.

Sharing the same view, Nguyen Huu Thap, President of Tuyen Quang province’s Business Association, stated this situation also occurs in Tuyen Quang, adding that several related departments and agencies seem to be unconcerned about the urgent works of businesses.

The association proposed the provincial People’s Committee build a set of indexes assessing the capacity of provincial and district departments and agencies and got the committee’s approval. At present, the assessment and ranking are made public on mass media, thus helping improve Tuyen Quang’s investment environment, Thap added.

New Wing Limited Company (Van Trung Industrial Park) creates jobs for more than 17,000 labourers.

Building data centre, assessing performance of agency heads

Against the aforementioned background, the participants held that firstly Bac Giang should focus on streamlining administrative procedures in order to improve its investment climate and provincial competitiveness index (PCI).

Bac Giang advocates improving investment climate to lure businesses and promote socio-economic development. The province will put forth solutions on building a data centre in the coming time, towards an inter-level unique software in the province. Of note, as from October 1, the provincial People’s Committee will allocate officials at one-window services and inspect the performance of officials, including provincial leaders. The ranking of departments, Bac Giang city and districts will also be announced. Nguyen Van Linh, Chairman of the provincial People’s Committee.

They also suggested the province deal with deeds that hamper the operation of businesses.

Information about land planning and investment attraction should be publicised, they said, underlining the need to create the best possible conditions for enterprises to access information to help them devise production and business plans.

Nguyen Van Linh, Chairman of the provincial People’s Committee, thanked the frank and wholehearted opinions of the delegates, especially those pointing out the locality’s limitations in the investment environment.

The opinions are considered experience for the province to devise its effective way in the time ahead, he said, stressing that the workshop saw the participation of representatives from departments, Bac Giang city and districts. Therefore, he noted, the officials should learn from the experience and overcome the limitations and shortcomings.

Linh said Bac Giang, more than 50km from Hanoi, boasts a lot of favourable conditions for growth with high education quality. However, its per capita income is equivalent to just 80 percent of the national average and the province still receives support from the national budget annually.

Given this, Bac Giang must improve its investment climate to lure more businesses and spur socio-economic development, he said.

To that end, the province will build a data centre, Linh emphasised, noting that as from October 1, the office of the provincial People’s Committee needs to allocate its officials at one-window services and inspect the performance of officials, including provincial leaders.

Echoing Tuyen Quang province’s views, Linh underscored the need to announce the ranking of departments, Bac Giang city and districts.

Bac Giang will deal with the planning overlap by scrapping insufficient planning and re-planning, especially at industrial parks and clusters. On that basis, the province will publicise the planning and call for and select investors.

All social resources and economic sectors will partake in comprehensive infrastructure construction, Linh said.

He added that the province will work to raise the role and responsibility of heads of agencies as well as officials directly settling concerns raised by businesses and people. The provincial People’s Committee will closely inspect the evaluation of the office heads and organise regular meetings with representatives of enterprises in the locality, Linh said.

Trinh Lan-Van Thuong