Chairman of Mitsubishi Corporation Vietnam 'gives advice' to improve Nghe An's competitiveness

Speaking at the conference “Meeting Nghe An - Japan: Cooperation and Development” organized by the People's Committee of Nghe An province in coordination with the Embassy of Japan in Vietnam recently, Mr. Tetsu Funayama, with his fluent Vietnamese, assessed PCI as a reliable index to promote provinces to improve the investment and business environment.

Mr. Tetsu Funayama - President and General Director of Mitsubishi Corporation Vietnam spoke at the conference. Photo: Thanh Duy

Citing the 2018 PCI Index results of Nghe An, which ranked 19th, up 2 places compared to 2017 and ranked 1st among the provinces in the North Central region, he shared: "This is a good thing, demonstrating the efforts of the Nghe An provincial government in listening to the wishes of businesses and improving the investment environment in the past year."

However, through careful research, compared with the 3 provinces with the highest PCI index, Mr. Tetsu Funayama recommended that there are 3 component indexes of Nghe An PCI that need to be improved to attract investment: Business support service index, Land access index and Time cost index.

According to the leader of Mitsubishi Corporation Vietnam, Nghe An scored 7.49 points in the Business Support Services Index. This is a bright spot that shows the level of interest of the government and departments of Nghe An province in listening to the wishes and supporting investors and businesses.

In Nghe An, there are more service providers than the average in 63 provinces and cities (30% more than the national average).

The number of enterprises wishing to use export support services and technical services is about 30% higher than the average of the top 3 provinces.

Meanwhile, the number of businesses using legal, planning and financial consulting services is about 30% lower than the average of 63 provinces and cities.

Therefore, Nghe An needs to have a plan to promote the use of these services to help businesses develop.

Regarding the Land Access Index, he assessed that it has been improved over the past 4 years in Nghe An. The preparation time for enterprises to obtain land use rights in Nghe An is only 20 days, 10 days less than the top 3 provinces.

However, according to Mr. Tetsu Funayama, 20% of businesses participating in the survey were not satisfied with the site clearance work, while the rate in the top 3 provinces was only 7%. In addition, businesses also expressed their opinions that they encountered difficulties in completing legal procedures.

To solve this problem, according to the leader of Mitsubishi Corporation Vietnam, Nghe An should publicize information about land and land allocation procedures on the website; clearly announce the process of handling documents and resolve questions from businesses through organizing seminars.

Delegation of Mitsubishi Corporation Vietnam Co., Ltd. visits VSIP Industrial Park. Photo courtesy

Regarding the Time Cost Index, Mr. Tetsu Funayama assessed that Nghe An province has been implementing reform measures to simplify and make procedures transparent for businesses. However, statistics show that this activity in Nghe An has not been as effective as expected.

“From a business perspective, we hope Nghe An province can study and simplify the application procedures further. Optimize the inspection and examination process. If we can do so, Nghe An will be the leading locality in attracting investors,” said the leader of Mitsubishi Corporation Vietnam.

Mr. Tetsu Funayama affirmed: Improving PCI is not only the key to improving the business environment and socio-economic development of the locality, but also helps businesses have a favorable investment environment for sustainable development; thereby, attracting many investors to Nghe An.

“With the current development momentum, I believe Nghe An will soon achieve the goal of becoming an industrial province, a socio-economic center of not only the North Central region but also the whole of Vietnam,” said the Chairman and General Director of Mitsubishi Corporation Vietnam at the end of his speech at the conference.

Last February, Mr. Tetsu Funayama led the Mitsubishi Corporation Vietnam delegation to attend the Spring Meeting with Investors 2019 held in Cua Lo town, Nghe An.

Here, Nghe An province signed a comprehensive strategic cooperation agreement with Mitsubishi Corporation Vietnam Co., Ltd.