Earlier last month, the Provincial People’s Committee of Dak Nong approved a project on development and deployment of a set of indicators which serve as the references for local authorities at all levels improve competitiveness. 

Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc addresses the World Economic Forum
on ASEAN in Ha Noi on September 11-13, 2018 . Photo: VGP

The move reflected the province’s latest efforts to get rid of its bottom position in the Provincial competitiveness Index in 2017 and 2018.

In a broader picture, the Government has issued six versions of resolutions on improving business climate and sharpening national competitiveness since 2014, in which the 2019 version was renamed as the Resolution No. 02.

If the resolutions issued in 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, and 2018 figured out hundreds of solutions for ministries and localities to implement, the 2019 resolution changed the approach, under which ministers and provincial leaders were empowered to decide solutions based on the Government’s top priorities, namely substantial simplification of business conditions, comprehensive reform of specialized inspection, e-commerce, supply of online services, and development of innovation eco-system.

The 2019 resolution also incorporated new indices on readiness for future production, logistics and tourisms competitiveness, which were introduced by the World Economic Forum since 2018.

Global competitiveness rankings of 9 ASEAN countries in 2019.
Source: World Economic Forum

According to Nguyen Chi Dung, Minister of Planning and Investment, the 2019 resolution has been deployed drastically and comprehensively. For example, Viet Nam experienced the fastest growth of mobile payments among 27 surveyed countries in 2018, with the percentage of Vietnamese using mobile payments increasing from 31% in 2018 to 61% in 2019.

Over the past time, inferior levels have cut or simplified specialized inspection requirements for 50% of categories of products while the number of business conditions has been reduced by half, Dung added

In some localities like Dong Thap and Quang Ninh, time required for starting up a business has been cut down to 5 days from 17 days.

Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam, Chairman of the National Council for Sustainable Development and Competitiveness Improvement said that Viet Nam’s innovation index jumped three notches, from 45th to 42 while the online public service index increased by 15 places to 59th.

Meanwhile, the country jumped 50 places on the global cybersecurity index, according to Dam.

In a latest move, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc signed a decision on establishment of a National Innovation Center under the Ministry of Planning and Investment with an aim to support the development of startup eco-system in Viet Nam.

The Center is expected to contribute to transforming growth model on the basis of scientific and technological development.

The Government chief has warned that Viet Nam will loose on home ground if efforts to improve business environment and sharpening competitiveness are not implemented drastically and effectively.

The consistent efforts of the Government, ministries and localities have brought about tangible outcomes as partly evidenced by the new position on the Global Competitiveness Report conduced by the World Economic Forum./.