Hanoi strives to climb up PCI rankings

The capital city of Hanoi must improve the environment of investment, production and business in order to boost its provincial competitiveness index (PCI), according to Vice Chairman of Hanoi People’s Committee Nguyen Van Suu.
The capital city of Hanoi must improve the environment ofinvestment, production and business in order to boost its provincialcompetitiveness index (PCI), according to Vice Chairman of HanoiPeople’s Committee Nguyen Van Suu.

Suu made theremark at a recent seminar in Hanoi , aiming to raise the city’s PCIrankings, which was the 51 st out of the country’s 63 provinces andcities last year, 15 places lower than its performance in 2011,according to survey results conducted by the Vietnam Chamber of Commerceand Industry (VCCI).

Among nine categories tocompose the PCI, Hanoi was in the top group in terms of labourtraining, but it dropped to the bottom of the list regarding land accessand stability in land use.

Th e party committeeand the People’s Committee of the city were forced into gathering allrelevant departments and agencies to figure out the reasons behind thedisappointing performance and propose ways to enhance PCI, thusimproving the confidence of organisations, enterprises and people.

Suu asked the municipal units to further push administrative reformswith focus on administrative procedures and the implementation of aone-stop mechanism, to remove difficulties for businesses.

Tran Huy Sang, Director of the Municipal Department of Home Affairs,also affirmed that Hanoi attaches importance to improving PCIrankings and boosting its socio-economic development.

Hanoi People’s Committee had previously issued a plan to boost rankings in the period from 2011-2015.

Despite its poor PCI showing, Hanoi recorded a 7.7 percent ec onomicgrowth rate in the first six months of this year, a relatively highfigure in the context of economic hardship nationwide.

The PCI programme is part of the US Agency for InternationalDevelopment’s Vietnam Competitiveness Initiative (USAID/VNCI), which hasbeen implemented since 2005. All 63 provinces and cities have used PCIto devise their own economic policies and development strategies.-VNA

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