To make DDCI index be the driving force of development

That ranking will have no meaning if departments, sectors and localities do not actively reform themselves more strongly and are determined to overcome shortcomings and limitations to improve the investment and business environment to serve the development of the province.

Meaning of numbers

DDCI has 10 component indexes to assess the economic management capacity of departments, sectors, districts and city. Looking from DDCI marking result, we see that behind each mark, it is a practice that reflects the capacity, ethics, attitude and responsibilities of the cadres and civil servants in performing the missions. Most of the enterprises recognized and highly appreciated some departments, sectors and localities that have well implemented the criteria of transparency and access to information. The units such as Provincial Public Security, Provincial Tax Department, Department of Planning and Investment have deployed to update information, publicize administrative procedures, fees and charges fully and promptly on the website to meet the demand on learning and be useful to enterprises, so they were given marks by the enterprises as 7.02, 6.86, 6.77 respectively and led the top of block of departments and sectors.

With the component indexes of dynamics and pioneering, most enterprises evaluated that the departments, sectors and localities performed well, so they gave high marks. The department and sector block with the lowest mark was 6.69 points, the highest was 7.16 points, while in the district and city blocks the lowest mark was 6.59 points and the highest was 7.31 points. Many enterprises believed that departments, sectors and localities were basically active, regularly grasped difficulties, promptly advised and proposed the Provincial People’s Committee many proposals and solutions to solve problems and support the enterprises to develop stably.

After the announcement of DDCI ranking in 2022, Deputy Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee, Chairman of the Provincial People’s Committee could not hide his concern about the quality of economic management and the investment and business environment of the province when seeing that the business community evaluated, gave low mark for component indexes such as time cost, fair competition, informal cost. How they could not worry because these are indexes reflecting the service attitude, public service ethics and harassed status of a part of cadres and civil servants that directly affect activities of investment attraction and economic development of the province. In the component index, the informal cost had 11 departments, sectors and 3 districts that did not reach point 6, in the component index of fair competition, there were 14 departments, sectors that did not reached point 5.

According to Dr. Nguyen Phuong Bac, Director of Bac Ninh Institute for Socio-economic Development Studies (the consulting unit that deployed the survey of the province’s DDCI): The enterprises did not highly appreciate the component indexes because they believed that in the settlement of administrative procedures, the state-owned enterprises, FDI enterprises and big enterprises were more favorable than small and medium enterprises, production and business households. In addition, the phenomenon of harassment and informal cost still occurred when enterprises conducted administrative transactions at some departments, sectors and localities, causing more or less difficulties for enterprises.

Looking at DDCI picture of the province in 2022, perhaps the business community has the most excitement in component indexes such as business support policies, leadership roles and application of information technology with high point ranges from 6.80 to 7.57 points.

Mr. Do Van Ve, Chairman of the Provincial Business Association said: I am not surprised with this year’s DDCI results. Particularly, the component index of business support policies and leadership roles were given the highest points by the business community because in recent years, the province has had many mechanisms and policies to support and remove difficulties for enterprises and departments, sectors and localities have promptly deployed to people and enterprises. Only during the recent Covid-19 epidemic, the province has drastically directed and was side by side with enterprises in prevention and control by guiding measures, prioritizing vaccine allocation and supporting human resources for vaccination against Covid-19 for employees of enterprises. In particular, the heads from the Provincial Party Committee, the Provincial People’s Committee to the departments, sectors, districts and city actively organized dialogues, listened to and efficiently resolved difficulties and problems for enterprises... That practical action has met the aspirations and made the enterprises satisfied.

The business community evaluated that the investment and business environment of the province is increasingly improved and favorable for enterprises.

Transformation is needed

The Provincial People’s Committee implements DDCI not to honor or criticize the departments, sectors and localities, but to identify strengths and weaknesses of state management agencies in performing the missions to serve the socio-economic development in general, serve the development of business community in particular. The point evaluated by enterprises is a measure for departments, sectors and localities to clearly see the limitations and inadequacies of their units, from which they can take solutions to improve the quality of economic management, create a favorable environment for people and enterprises to invest, produce and do business more efficiently, contributing to bringing Thai Binh up to become a developed province in the region as proposed by the Resolution of the 20^th Provincial Party Congress.

On the basis of analyzing each value in the DDCI marking component index in 2022, the consulting unit has shown that the business environment of the province is showing an improvement trend, there is progress, but there are still barriers which are not small; the gap between policy and implementation is shortened. The departments and sectors which are related to the enterprises and manage the public resources need to be changed more strongly to create favorable conditions for enterprises and business people to create new driving force of growth; the guarantee of fair treatment and equality among all types of enterprises also need to be more improved.

Dr. Nguyen Phuong Bac added: As a unit that researches and deploys DDCI in many localities across the country, we find that Thai Binh seeks for perfection and it is also very determined in implementing the improvement of investment and business environment, and improvement of the Provincial Competitiveness Index (PCI). Based on the limitations that DDCI in 2022 has pointed out, we have 6 recommendations for the province, especially for departments, sectors, districts and city for reference, thereby, there are solutions to overcome the component indexes that were lost points in the eyes of enterprises. First of all, the departments, sectors and localities need to improve dynamism and pioneering associated with the responsibility of the head. The State management agencies also need to soon build the processes and diagrams on the order and procedures for investment inside and outside the economic zones, industrial parks, and industrial clusters, and apply the models to support the creative innovation. In order to improve the transparency, one of the practical solutions is that departments, sectors and People’s Committees of districts and city must quickly transform digitally and perform online public services at level 3 and level 4. Together with the improvement of efficiency of business dialogue, inspection and inspection transparency, the departments, sectors and localities need to improve the cadre capacity and improve cadre behavior culture under the direction of being friendly, serving the people and enterprises, take measures to strictly handle the violating cadres and civil servants.

DDCI is the confidential voice of the business community, determination to improve the investment and business environment and competitiveness of the province. The results of DDCI ranking have shown the shortcomings, the state management agencies should change and correct to overcome factors that cause difficulties for people and enterprises as well as inhibit the socio-economic development of the province. The remaining issue and the business community expects that is the serious absorption, seeking for perfection and reform determination of departments, sectors, districts and city; do not let the situation of “hot above, cold below” occur in the implementation of improving the investment and business environment of the province. Only by doing so, DDCI will become the driving force for the change of the investment and business environment, improvement of the province’s competitiveness, and realization of Thai Binh as an attractive destination for investors, where the enterprises accompany with the province to develop together.