Bac Giang (VNA) - The northern province of Bac Giang is focusing on increasing its ranking in the provincial competitiveness index (PCI) rankings, said Chairman of the provincial People's Committee.

In the time to come, BacGiang province will work to raise awareness and sense of responsibility of officials, Party members, and civil servantson ways to improve the business and investment environment as well as theefficiency of investment attraction, Duong stated. He said that the consistentimplementation of the policy of "accompanying enterprises" iscritical to increase contact and dialogue with investors and businesses inorder to listen to suggestions, promptly resolve complaints and recommendations.

The province will promoteinnovation to improve its standing in the index. Accordingly, each work unit mustundertake at least one initiative to improve and raise component index eachyear.

At the same time, Bac Giangwill improve the selection criteria for investors in the field of industrialdevelopment with clear and detailed regulations that ensure transparency tosource quality investment projects.

Infrastructure will be givenfirst priority to attract investment, with a focus on completing several keyprojects, speeding up the implementation of connectivity traffic routes, and expandingnew spaces for industrial and service development. Connectivity will beenhanced among major centers like Hanoi, Bac Ninh, Hai Duong, Thai Nguyen, LangSon, and Quang Ninh provinces, he said.

Bac Giang will pay greatattention to improving the quality of human resources to meet the requirementsof enterprises, actively supporting investors and businesses in removingobstacles, and strengthening State management over investment projects in thelocality, he said.

The province will coordinatewith the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) and centrally-runagencies, and representatives of provinces with high PCI rankings. It will alsoorganise a conference to analyse reasons for the decrease in scores, and identifythe responsible units in charge so as to make a plan to upgrade the PCI indexin 2022.

The Chairman of theprovincial People’s Committee asked local departments, sectors and localities thathave many administrative procedures related to businesses to review and shortenthe time to handle administrative procedures by at least 30 percent. They werealso instructed to publicise the number of dossiers handled every month, and therate of late payment dossiers on social networking sites such as Zalo andFacebook, and e-portals.

According to the provincialDepartment of Planning and Investment, in the Vietnam ProvincialCompetitiveness Index Report 2021, Bac Giang was listed in the group of provincesand cities with good economic management quality. The province reached 64.74points, 0.76 point higher than that of 2020; and ranking 31st out of63 provinces and cities, down four places compared to that in 2020.

In 2021, Bac Giang had fiveout of 10 components increase within the index, including policies supportingenterprises, transparency, land access, legal institutions and security order,and unofficial expenses. However, several components within the index witnesseddeclines in the provincial administration, including the cost of market entry,fair competitiveness, labour training, time cost, and new initiatives.

Among the index componentsthat reported decreases in Bac Giang, fair competitiveness and time cost hadthe highest rates of decline. Specifically, the fair competitiveness indexdecreased by 1.91 points. Thus it ranked 33rd out of 63 provincesand cities, down 28 places compared to 2020. Meanwhile, the time cost indexdecreased by 1.69 points, ranking 46th out of 63 provinces andcities, down 41 places compared to 2020. The administration's new initiativesdecreased by 1.09 points, ranking 61st out of 63 provinces andcities, down 41 places compared to 2020. Labour training fell by 0.49 points,ranking 18th; and the market entry cost declined by 0.23 points,ranking 37th nationwide./.