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The central city of Da Nang continued to be the top performer in the 2014 Provincial Competitiveness Index (PCI). Photo tinmoitruong

With 66.87 points, Da Nang's success was attributed to the city's effective implementation of the "Year of Enterprise" programme, under which the city government implemented several practical initiatives to create a favourable environment for business development.

These include strengthening administrative and procedural reform, improving the security of land and business premises, facilitating access to credit, and actively organising dialogues and meetings to remove barriers, identified directly by the business community.   

Following Da Nang are the Mekong Delta province of Dong Thap (65.28 points) and the northern province of Lao Cai (64.67 points). Both provinces developed unique innovations. While Dong Thap's culture of considering enterprises as partners in socio-economic development was greatly appreciated by local enterprises, Lao Cai created its own district competitiveness index to receive feedback from businesses and other economic actors regarding the district and city governance.

After 10 years in the PCI Survey, HCM City entered the top-five group of the best-governed provinces and cities in Viet Nam.

This is the second consecutive year the northern province of Quang Ninh is listed among the top five performers.

The rest of the top 10 provinces and cities in 2014 are Vinh Phuc, Long An, Thai Nguyen and Kien Giang, besides Bac Ninh and Vinh Phuc.

The 2014 PCI is the 10th edition of the report, which is designed to assess the ease of doing business, economic governance and administrative reform efforts of local governments of provinces and cities in Viet Nam.

The 2014 report is based on a rigorous survey of the perceptions of more than 9,800 domestic private firms.

The overall PCI comprises 10 sub-indices reflecting economic governance areas that affect private sector development.

A province that is considered to perform well on the PCI is one that has low entry costs for business start-ups, provides easy access to land and security of business premises, has a transparent business environment and equitable business information, and imposes minimal informal changes and limited time requirements for bureaucratic procedures and inspections.

It also has minimal crowding out of private activity from policy biases toward state, foreign or connected firms; proactive and creative provincial leadership in solving problems for enterprises; developed and high-quality business support services; and sound labour training policies; besides fair and effective legal procedures for dispute resolution.

The PCI was launched by the Viet Nam Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the US Agency for International Development.

http://www.vir.com.vn/da-nang-tops-provincial-competitiveness-index-again.html