That strong performance has led to a more ambitious goal: turning high rankings into better services that businesses can experience in every administrative procedure. On July 24, 2026, the city issued Plans 285/KH-UBND and 286/KH-UBND, setting out a roadmap to reach the country’s top three, with digitalization, transparency, and business support as its guiding principles.

Hai Phong is recognized as one of the five provinces and cities with the country’s highest economic governance quality in 2025

Addressing the bottlenecks

The PCI improvement plan for 2026-2027 aims for an overall score of at least 70 points, moving from the national top five into the top three. The goal is ambitious, but more important is the city’s choice of priorities.

Instead of strengthening areas where it already performs well, Hai Phong is focusing on two subindices that lagged in the 2025 results: Informal Charges and Legal Institutions. The city aims to raise the Informal Charges Index to at least 7.8 points and the Legal Institutions Index to at least 7 points.

Here, the PCI serves as a measure of governance quality rather than a scoreboard. The Informal Charges subindex reflects integrity and business confidence, while the Legal Institutions subindex measures how secure the business environment is when disputes arise. These are also among the hardest indicators to improve because they depend more on behavior than on regulations.

The city is focusing on three heavily weighted subindices, each accounting for 15% of the PCI methodology: Transparency, Business Support Policies, and Proactive Governance. In 2026, the city aims to raise the Transparency Index to at least 7.5 points, the Business Support Policies Index to at least 6 points, and the Proactive Governance Index to at least 6.4 points.

Integrated infrastructure investment and accelerated transportation development provide the foundation for Hai Phong to strengthen its long-term competitiveness

Together, these three areas shape much of an investor’s experience: whether information is clear enough to support decision-making, whether support policies reach the businesses they are meant to serve, and whether government agencies actively resolve problems instead of simply processing applications. These changes cannot be achieved through publicity campaigns. They require changes in how government operates throughout the entire business life cycle.

Structuring business support

The centerpiece of Plan 286 is the “Succeed Together” model, designed to support investors and businesses throughout their production and business activities.

Its value lies not in the idea of partnership but in assigning support responsibilities to clearly designated contact points. Every department, agency, and locality must publicly disclose the names, positions, areas of responsibility, and telephone numbers of designated officials. A business support hotline will also be made public so businesses no longer have to rely on personal connections to seek assistance.

The plan also provides detailed guidance for every administrative procedure and standardized application forms so businesses can prepare complete dossiers from the start. The city will introduce a bilingual Vietnamese-English AI virtual assistant to answer queries about administrative procedures automatically, along with an appointment system for businesses that need direct support.

This marks a shift from regulating businesses to providing investor support. When responsible officials, their duties, and processing procedures are publicly available, business support becomes an ongoing system rather than a series of periodic meetings.

While the “Succeed Together” model improves access to the city’s agencies, the “Seamless Dossier” model directly addresses one of businesses’ biggest hidden costs: time.

The model officially takes effect on August 1, 2026. The city’s agencies must publish administrative forms on their online portals so businesses can download them directly, provide detailed filing instructions, and produce guidance videos whenever needed.

Most important is one commitment: when an application requires revision or additional documents, the responsible agency may request corrections only once. This shifts responsibility back to the administrative system. Receiving officials must conduct complete reviews, provide clear guidance, and take responsibility for the instructions they give.

An application that goes through repeated review cycles does more than waste time. It also increases staffing and opportunity costs while creating gray areas that can lead to informal charges. The “Seamless Dossier” model therefore brings together administrative reform, greater transparency, and tighter control of informal charges. It does not promise to remove every obstacle. Instead, it standardizes the basics that matter most: clear forms, complete guidance, and consistent accountability.

Assigning clear responsibilities

PCI results reflect the combined performance of many sectors and cannot be improved by a single lead agency. The two plans therefore assign responsibilities to individual departments and agencies, each with clear tasks and deadlines.

The Department of Science and Technology has been tasked with studying the adoption of licensed AI tools across the public sector under a phased and controlled roadmap to support administrative reform, digital government, and better public services. Implementation begins in the third quarter of 2026 and is scheduled for completion in the first quarter of 2027.

The terms “licensed,” “phased,” and “controlled” reflect the city’s approach to technology. AI is not treated as an add-on. New tools must operate within clearly defined governance processes while maintaining individual accountability.

For land management, Plan 285 assigns the Department of Agriculture and Environment, in coordination with the Department of Construction, to develop a city-wide digital map of cleared land during 2026-2027, with completion scheduled for 2027.

For most investment decisions, land is both the first consideration and the biggest source of uncertainty. When cleared land, auction sites, and projects requiring investor selection are publicly disclosed, businesses have a stronger basis for estimating costs and project timelines. The digital map thus becomes part of the city’s transparency infrastructure.

Alongside greater disclosure, the plan calls for a review of land that has been allocated or leased but is being used by the wrong entities, allocated under improper authority, left idle, or used for the wrong purposes, creating additional cleared land. Both efforts must move forward together to improve the Access to Land indicator.

On legal matters, the Hai Phong People’s Court will continue speeding up the resolution of commercial and business cases while ensuring fairness and objectivity. The City Inspectorate, Department of Justice, and enforcement agencies have been assigned to improve legal support services, resolve complaints, and accelerate long-standing cases.

The Hai Phong Police are responsible for another part of the business environment: property security. The plan calls for connecting AI camera systems in industrial parks to the city police network to reduce theft and unlawful entry. Deployment begins in the third quarter of 2026, with full operation expected in the third quarter of 2027.

This reflects a broader view of the business environment. Investors assess not only licensing timelines and compliance costs but also the security of factories, warehouses, and employees. Security has become another factor in competitiveness.

The Department of Finance will oversee implementation by monitoring compliance across agencies and localities, analyzing annual PCI results, recommending improvement measures.

Quarterly and annual reports, along with designated focal officers at each agency, turn PCI from a shared goal into a measurable responsibility. Every bottleneck has a lead agency, a deadline, and a clear deliverable, helping direct reform efforts where they are needed most.

Fostering infrastructure and green transformation

Plan 285 sets a long-term goal of raising Hai Phong's PCI score to at least 73 points by 2030 and moving the city from the national top five into the top three.

Yet the city’s long-term vision goes beyond administrative reform. Hai Phong places PCI within a broader strategy that includes integrated investment in socioeconomic and production infrastructure, faster development of transportation, seaports, logistics, digital infrastructure, and energy systems, along with the expansion of industrial parks and clusters.

Efficient administrative procedures help businesses establish operations and implement projects more quickly, but long-term competitiveness also depends on market connectivity, workforce quality, logistics costs, and reliable energy supplies.

Hai Phong plans to strengthen supply-demand linkages and promote cooperation among domestic enterprises, as well as between foreign-invested and domestic businesses, through targeted value chains. These business matching conferences do more than create new market opportunities; they help businesses connect with the production networks of major corporations.

The city is also linking growth with a greener business ecosystem and green transformation. As environmental standards become a requirement for joining global supply chains, green development is no longer just an image-building effort but a new competitive requirement.

“PCI is more than an annual score or ranking. It measures the business community’s satisfaction and confidence in local government. Every reform should be reflected in businesses’ real experience: more transparent information, more convenient procedures, lower compliance costs, and a safer, fairer investment environment,” said Le Trung Kien, Vice Chairman of the Hai Phong People’s Committee.

With a phased implementation roadmap, the “Succeed Together” and “Seamless Dossier” models, and clearly assigned responsibilities for every department and agency, Hai Phong is moving beyond treating PCI as a ranking competition. Its broader goal is to build a business ecosystem with transparent information, convenient procedures, reliable legal protections, and a government that truly supports businesses.