Despite drastic participation and great effort of the whole political system, the ranking of the Provincial Competitiveness Index (PCI) 2020 of Kien Giang province was not as high as expected. To increase the overall ranking to become a good PCI performer in 2021, the province will further accelerate reforms, especially administrative procedure reforms to boost the local business climate.

PCI is a very important indicator that illustrates the capacity and effectiveness of public governance in law enforcement, especially the reform, publicity and transparency of administrative procedures to create a fair competitive environment for all people and businesses. Besides, this index is also an effective dialogue channel for the government and private enterprises, a tool to express the perspective of enterprises, a symbol of the active response of the local government.

Being well aware of this, in recent years, the government of Kien Giang province has always given top priority to improving the PCI Index to increase the satisfaction of businesses and investors. However, in 2020, its PCI Index scored only 60.01 points, ranking No. 62 out of 63 provinces and cities in the country (down 27 places) and No. 12 out of 13 Mekong Delta localities.

Explaining the reason why the PCI Index 2020 dropped, Director of the Kien Giang Investment, Trade and Tourism Promotion Center, Ms. Nguyen Duy Linh Thao said that, compared to other provinces and cities in the Mekong Delta, the task and workload of the province is more difficult to be met. Given overall difficulties, good economic growth, corporate business investment and budget revenue in 2020 were attributed to enormous efforts of all branches and levels of authority, people and businesses in the province.

Specifically, businesses still complained much about the slow settlement of administrative procedures due to geographical locations. Importantly, in 2020, like other localities in the country, the province faced negative impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic, natural disasters and climate change. The province's infrastructure system was not good enough to serve commodity circulation and logistics demands.

Resolved for higher PCI ranking

Encouragingly, despite various difficulties and challenges, the entire political system of Kien Giang province continued to make efforts to speed up administrative procedure reform, enhance the business environment and support the local business community.

Director Nguyen Duy Linh Thao said that the province will further support local enterprises and investors to overcome hardships in 2021 and beyond, synchronously carry out PCI improvement solutions, and gradually strengthen the appeal of the business investment environment. In 2021, the province will strive to increase its PCI score and rankings, aimed to enter the good performer group, she added.

To achieve this goal, Kien Giang province will focus on solving three issues: “Administrative reform - Publicity and transparency - Accountability”.

At the same time, the province will upgrade roles of local provincial business associations in disseminating policies and laws and creating a favorable business environment where enterprises can express their thoughts, issues and plans to the provincial government.

For its part, the Kien Giang Investment, Trade and Tourism Promotion Center will fulfill tasks assigned by the Provincial People's Committee, regularly coordinate with local business associations to inform the significance and importance of PCI to the business community.

All of these efforts are aimed at building a democratic, modern, professional, open and transparent administration that better serves businesses and people, forming e-government, improving the public service quality. “Accelerating administrative reform, improving the PCI and increasing the attractiveness of the business investment climate will require all sectors and levels of authority to focus on reviewing and addressing shortcomings, limitations and bottlenecks in social and economic development management to have timely solutions, gradually build a transparent and attractive investment environment, provide the most favorable conditions for investors and enterprises to do business in the province, thus helping foster economic growth and sustainable development in the coming time," she said.