Dong Thap’s mission to elevate opportunities for new investors

Nguyen Van Duong, Chairman of Dong Thap People’s Committee

Dong Thap has been praised for its stable performance as one of the five best performers in governance quality and the single locality in the top five of the Provincial Competitiveness Index (PCI) tally for 12 consecutive years. What is your reaction to these achievements?

In the recent past, the province’s management was heartened as Dong Thap came second nationwide in the 2019 Provincial Governance and Public Administration Index (PAPI) which was rated on by local people. Now, based on the newly-released 2019 PCI ranking the province was consistent with the second position, and continues to be championed among the best performers in governance quality. With such achievements, 2019 could be regarded as a successful year for Dong Thap.

On this occasion, I want to send sincere thanks to the business community for their assessments, that have been a big source of inspiration for our local management to stay consistent in making further strides in the realm of administrative procedure reform acceleration, as well as changing the perception about the role of businesses in driving socio-economic development in the locality.

The most important achievement the province has posted, however, does not only come from our ranking, but also in our accessing careful studies being announced each year which have helped us to notify what we need to further strive to gradually perfect management methods and policies, from there providing better support for business development.

We expect the business community will always accompany local management authorities on a constructive basis, striving to build up an increasingly beautiful and thriving Dong Thap.

How has the province been working towards making Dong Thap a magnet luring in businesses and investors?

For many years, Dong Thap has been taking wide-ranging measures to constantly improve the local investment climate and support business development, making this our management focus.

The province’s key advantage lies in the human factor – that is the management at all levels who always go avant-garde in resolving investment and business activities of enterprises. To better the local investment environment and support business development, Dong Thap has taken businesses as our companions and advisors in propelling provincial development.

Under the slogan ‘Always walking in step with businesses’, in past years the province has been impartial in changing the management mindset shifting from the ask-give mechanism into a pro-business approach, from there making businesses feel secure when setting foot and expanding production activities in the province.

Each employee at state management agencies has been making efforts to improve their service quality and is dedicated to supporting business operations. This is the whole journey changing the mindset which stems from the province’s management, then spreading spillover effects into the whole system.

These constant efforts towards ensuring prosperity of businesses and the province alike have helped Dong Thap to stay secure as one of the top five performers in the national PCI tally.

Dong Thap’s leadership met with World Bank country director for Vietnam Ousmane Dione (third from left) to discuss ways for further improving the province’s competitiveness

Constant efforts are being made to make ensure investors receive the latest information

What will the province do in upcoming years to further improve scores in the PCI?

The ranking has had positive impacts on local socio-economic development, so we have set forth a raft of concrete measures for further PCI improvement.

Along with this, right after the tally was announced, the province has made inclusive assessments, looking into limitations and how to tackle as well as acquire useful recommendations on ways to manage the economy and further improve the business climate, and from there presenting new plans to stimulate investment, create more jobs, and lift up local social and economic development.

Dong Thap will also speed up the administrative reform process, helping firms to save time on settling investment and business procedures, striving to put in place pro-business administration to facilitate business development.

One highlight is that Dong Thap has been deploying the model of “four stops on one working day” referring to the process of receiving, settling, and delivering results of making administrative procedures in business setup and registration.

Efforts also gear towards creating diverse channels to communicate with the business community such as through email, social network connections, and even coffee shop meet-ups.

To learn more about the issues, members of local management agencies have often come to visit businesses, approaching startup projects at cafés based in diverse districts and towns in the province. This is a fresh step promoting the business coffee model in 2020.

We have also come up with other models as timing for home-based implementation of administrative procedures, and sending results to customers via posts, or conducting public services online at one-stop shop divisions combined with communal cultural post offices. As of now, the average time to handle new business setup registration is only 1.27 days and 1.22 day for changes to business registration. All procedures were settled in a timely manner.

Dong Thap is also committed to pushing forward the department and district competitiveness index in order to spread the innovative mindset to the grassroots level. This would help our management to craft out suitable measures to better the province’s PCI ranking in the forthcoming time.

In addition, diverse practical programmes took place recently to promote business startups. Consequently, new business setups amounted to 525 in 2019, with VND3.4 trillion ($149.5 million) in total registered capital.

Due regard has been paid to investment promotion activities to ensure investors receive information in a timely manner. Last year, Dong Thap approved investment proposals of 35 projects valued at VND6.53 trillion ($283.8 million), including two foreign-invested projects. In Dong Thap, our management believes the opportunities of investors and businesses are the opportunities of local government and people alike, so we are doing our utmost to best support them.