The city was in 14th place in 2020 and 2019 after slipping from 10th in 2018.

Many delegates said though administrative procedures have been streamlined, they still cause difficulty for businesses and the public, the reason for the low ranking in the PCI.

Đậu Anh Tuấn, director general of the legal department of the Việt Nam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI), said that the bottlenecks still exist in investment, construction, land, tax, and social insurance procedures. Besides, administrative procedures and information related to business activities are not adequately transparent.

HCM City will seek ways to improve the investment and business environment to make things easier, more transparent and fairer, and expects to become one of the top five in the list by 2025.

It particularly aims to do well in the rankings for socio-economic management quality by speeding up digital transformation.

To rise in the PCI, it has ambitious targets for online business registration and licence issuance rates, and plans to enhance the efficiency of the centre for land reserve development to benefit investors.

It will make public all administrative procedures to make it easier for the public and businesses, reduce processing time and generally improve the quality of public services.

The People’s Committee has instructed the Department of Planning and Investment to work with the VCCI to create benchmarks to assess the quality of work done by various departments and localities to improve the business environment and rise in the PCI through 2025.  — VNS