Quang Ninh tops Viet Nam's competitiveness and green development indexes

The 2023 PCI & PGI Report is a collaborative research product, conducted annually by Viet Nam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) with assistance from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and private sector partners, to promote an enabling and environmentally friendly business climate in Viet Nam, under the Provincial Green Index Initiative program.

The report is based on the results of a survey for more than 10,000 businesses nationwide.

The PCI is designed to assess the ease of doing business, the quality of economic governance, and the effectiveness of administrative reform efforts in 63 provinces and municipalities in Viet Nam.

The PCI strives to augment the collective voice of investors in Viet Nam regarding economic governance in provinces where they invest and in the country as a whole.

Provincial efforts to assist with business operations were recognized as recording the greatest improvements from the prior year.

Positive changes were recorded in the scores of most indicators, contributing to an increase of 0.6 point in the subindex score of 6.39 points, compared to the prior year.

In 2023, 73.3 percent of firms said that the eligibility procedures for accessing credit for small and medium-sized enterprises were easy to complete (71.4 percent in 2022); 75 percent of firms reported easy access to consultancies provided by state agencies on management skills (70 percent in 2022).

Notably, 44.6 percent of firms reported satisfaction with the provincial provision of free trade agreement (FTA)-related information (32.6 percent in 2022) and 66.7 percent of firms reported appropriate assistance was provided by provincial agencies to help them address problems in complying with legal documents related to FTA (56.9 percent in 2022).

The southern province of Long An secured second place in the PCI 2023 rankings with 2.49 points, followed by the northern port city of Hai Phong with 70,34 points, Bac Giang with 69,75 points, and Dong Thap with 69,66 points. Ha Noi dropped eight notches to rank 28th in the PCI 2023 rankings.

Meanwhile, the PGI aims to assess the importance of environmental protection in Viet Nam's growth trajectory and has been developed over the past five years.

The goal of the PGI is to provide actionable policy advice to national and subnational officials about the appropriate policy goals to reduce the impact of climate change and pollution on business performance and longevity.

Provinces that do well on this index provide transparent meteorology information and warnings to their local businesses, have hardened infrastructure to prevent the impact of disasters, and move quickly to restore transportation, infrastructure, and government services if a climate disaster happens./.