With a score of 64.02 points, the northern province of Thai Binh has improved its Provincial Competitiveness Index (PCI) ranking by jumping to 25th out of 63 provinces and cities nationwide last year from 36th in 2006.

For the fourth year in a row, the province made a leap in the PCI ranking thanks to its high scores in four out of 10 sub-indices – entry and time costs and regulatory compliance, policy bias, law and order. The province also climbed 13 places to 20th out of 63 provinces and cities nationwide in the 2020 Provincial Governance and Public Administration Performance Index (PAPI) rankings

It is the result of improving the investment and business environment in Thai Binh province by 2020, creating a breakthrough in attracting investment to the province.

The Provincial Committee of the Party, People's Council and People's Committee always paid attention to and directed and conducted many solutions to improve the investment and business environment, thereby creating favourable conditions for production and business activities and promoting investment attraction into the province.

According to To Xuan Thuc, Chairman of Dong Hung district People's Committee the district always focuses on dissemination so that officials, party members and people, especially those on official duty, understand the importance of the above-mentioned work and facilitate investors who pour capital in the province.

As many as 125 small and medium enterprises were set up in the 2016-20 period. It attracted two investors who spent money on the technical infrastructure of Do Luong and Dong La industrial clusters and 31 projects in other industrial clusters, bringing the total number of projects to 110 while creating jobs for more than 21,000 employees in the period.

Regarding the administrative reform work, the province has utilised all resources to invest in facilities and equipment to serve the operation of the provincial Public Administration Service Centre (PASC) and the one-stop divisions. The provincial People's Committee issued about 500 documents of all kinds in the 2016-20 period to direct and guide agencies, units and localities to perform administrative procedures in the locality. The province has also reviewed and simplified nearly 1,200 administrative procedures and cut at least 40 per cent of the time for handling administrative procedures compared to normal.

Up to 99 per cent of people and businesses felt satisfied when conducting administrative procedures at the provincial PASC.

To date, the province has updated more than 1,500 administrative procedures on the National Public Service Portal and integrated more than 500 online public services.

Do Van Ve, Chairman of the provincial Business Association, said that the implementation of administrative procedures at the PASC has been highly appreciated by investors because favourable conditions have been created for them during the execution of projects.

In order to improve the investment and business climate of the province, it not only focuses on reforming administrative procedures but also issuing many mechanisms and policies to encourage investment.

In addition to the Government’s incentives, the provincial authorities offer their own incentives to new or expanded investment projects in the economic zones. Investors will enjoy incentives in land access, support in the building and operation of technical infrastructure facilities, the building of centralised wastewater treatment systems, site clearance, completion of administrative formalities, and training of human resources.

Investment priorities are given to building and commercially operating infrastructure facilities and concentrated wastewater treatment systems of industrial parks and industrial clusters for large-scale, state-of-the-art and environmentally friendly industries; commerce and services; and hi-tech agriculture.

Attention has been paid to vocational training and human resource development. The province constantly improves the effectiveness of linking vocational training establishments with businesses.

Agencies and units in the province have considered administrative reform, improving the investment and business environment as one of the key tasks, contributing to turning it into an attractive destination for both domestic and foreign investors. — VNS