Chairman of Nghe An province: 'If officials are found to intentionally harass businesses, they will be severely punished'

(Baonghean.vn) -On March 14, the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) announced a set of indicators to evaluate and rank the economic governance quality of provinces and cities in Vietnam in 2016.

Nghe An province ranked 25th, up 7 places compared to 2015 - achieving the best ranking ever. Nghe An Newspaper reporter briefly interviewed comrade Nguyen Xuan Duong - Deputy Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee, Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee.

PV: Sir, the latest announcement from VCCI is a positive sign for the process of improving the investment environment in Nghe An. Can you say anything more about this issue?

Comrade Nguyen Xuan Duong:We are very excited when the VCCI rankings this year were announced, in which Nghe An made quite an impressive progress: Up 7 places compared to 2015, only behind Thua Thien - Hue in the group of provinces in the North Central region. This result shows the recognition of the business community for the efforts of Nghe An province in recent times.

Data about Nghe An in the new VCCI document published on March 14, 2017. Photo: Nguyen Nam

Specifically, Nghe An has a total score of 59.45 - the highest ever and is ranked in the good group. In 2015, Nghe An ranked 32nd, down 4 places compared to 28th place in 2014. Thus, in 2016, our province has had a "breakthrough" in the competition to attract investment with other provinces.

To achieve that result, last year, Nghe An province focused all resources on investment and development, prioritized internal development and attached importance to attracting external resources, improved the investment and business environment, created all favorable conditions for enterprises to invest in production and business, and promoted socio-economic development. Leaders at all levels and sectors closely directed specialized departments and affiliated units to develop and implement specific solutions to improve the PCI index.

Along with that, the province's public administration has made many clear steps forward, including: Administrative procedure reform, implementation of the one-stop and one-stop mechanism, organizational reform, public finance reform, and administrative modernization. State agencies are thoroughly instructed to create all favorable conditions for businesses and people to carry out administrative procedures. Direction and inspection work is strengthened to closely follow the actual situation, thereby making timely adjustments.

Comrade Nguyen Xuan Duong gave an interview to Nghe An Newspaper after the 2016 provincial competitiveness index rankings were announced. Photo: Thuc Anh

Reporter: According to the figures released by VCCI, the indicators of transparency, market entry and labor training of Nghe An in 2016 have improved quite well. According to you, how should the province promote this positive change?

Comrade Nguyen Xuan Duong:Of the 10 PCI component indices in 2016, Nghe An province had 6 indices increase compared to 2015. The strongest increase was in the labour training index, increasing from 5.81 points to 6.51 points. This is the result of the orientation to build Nghe An into an educational centre, providing high-quality human resources for the region - one of the important goals set forth in Resolution 26.

Nghe An has the advantage of being a populous province with an abundant labor force. However, the current trend will increasingly emphasize quality, focusing on highly skilled labor. The more we focus on labor training, the more opportunities we will have to attract investors and projects with high technology and intelligence content. And that is the direction of sustainability and integration.

Some Japanese investors who are conducting surveys in Nghe An also intend to cooperate with us in training. If that becomes a reality, it will open up a very promising direction for workers in the province, because then we will not only provide human resources for businesses operating in the province but also reach out to other provinces and cities, even to the international market.

In addition, the index of provincial government dynamism and transparency also increased compared to 2015. In the coming time, we will further promote solutions in administrative reform to become more and more friendly to businesses and people. In particular, we will promote the application of information technology in management, soon implement the first steps of e-Government, thereby enhancing publicity and transparency.

Reporter: However, there are still some comments from businesses about the situation where the provincial leaders actively intervene but some officials who directly work with businesses still cause trouble and harassment. What do you think about this phenomenon?

Comrade Nguyen Xuan Duong:I think their reflection is correct, the evidence is that in the PCI 2016 component indexes, the indexes on time costs, informal costs and business support services are still not really good. Some indexes even decreased compared to 2015.

In my opinion, there are two cases where officials cause trouble for businesses. One is that they themselves do not fully understand the policies and procedures to resolve the issue for businesses as quickly and conveniently as possible. Two is that they intentionally harass businesses. In this second case, if discovered, we will take strict action. If not resolved, we will assign tasks and positions to others so as not to affect the image of the public authority.

I would like to affirm that the province has, is and will continue to have solutions to improve public ethics, thoroughly instill the spirit of service to ministries and civil servants at all levels. We will also strengthen supervision, inspection and respond immediately to comments from businesses and people.

PV: Thank you for the conversation!

PV