[29 June 2012] - The Provincial Competitiveness Index (PCI) was developed in 2005 by the Vietnamese Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) and the U.S. Agency for International Development-supported Vietnam Competitiveness Initiative (USAID/VNCI).

 

As one of the largest and most comprehensive social surveys in Vietnam, the PCI  has come to be seen as a critical tool for measuring and assessing the standards of economic governance in Vietnam’s 63 provinces from the perspective of private sector businesses, covering business-critical issues of entry costs, compliance costs, land access, informal charges and governance qualities on pro-activity, transparency, labor development and legal institutions. The PCI also includes an index assessing quality of provinces’ infrastructure as one of the most critical barriers to investment and growth in the country.

 

The PCI has triggered a radical change in motivating provincial reform efforts with over 40 provinces conducting PCI diagnostic workshops to engage public-private dialogue or issue resolutions to improve governance performance. To position the PCI on a higher level, survey has been expanded to reach FDI business voices to draw a more comprehensive picture of Vietnam business climate for policy-makers during their decision-making process.

 

Economica Vietnam has been very active in recent years in promoting good economic governance in provinces by working closely with provincial government in Cao Bang, Tuyen Quang, Bac Kan, Quang Nam, Phu Yen, etc. Seeing PCI as a good tool to promote provincial economic governance, Economica Vietnam has worked closely with provincial governments, especially with the Department of Planning and Investment (DPI),  to carry out in-depth diagnosis of the provincial business environment and investment climate. The firm also supported the formulation of the business environment reform action plan, the implementation of concrete reforms at provincial level, awareness raising and capacity building on economic governance and PCI, promotion of interactive dialogue between the public and private sector in the province and in information campaigns targeting the provincial business community.

 

Most recently in June 2012, Economica Vietnam supported an interactive business dialogue in Cao Bang on PCI and provincial business environment, a PCI workshop in Tuyen Quang and Ha Giang, documentation of the public and private dialogue and PCI process in Quang Nam. It is designing a specific training programme on PPD at district level and a training programme on local economic governance for different provinces. Capacity building on local economic governance and PCI  are planned to take place in Quarter III of 2012.