Positive changes in government attitudes toward private enterprises

Dr. Vu Tien Loc

From the opinions of enterprises in the annual report of the Provincial Competitiveness Index (PCI) 2020, how do you evaluate the local reforms?

In the past five years, Vietnamese enterprises tended to have a more positive assessment of the dynamism, pioneering spirit and demand of the government. Also, around this time, the unofficial cost burden continued to be reduced – a trend that has been consistent since 2016. In addition, businesses also put greater confidence in legal institutions and security situations in localities.

Therefore, the PCI report showed a positive change in the government's attitude towards the private enterprise sector.

The relationship "government accompanies the business" was started, the slogan "Business prosperity - local development" was set up. The motto of "in corporate success, the government's obligations, in corporate failure, the government's responsibility" is spreading.

These results further motivate substantive activities to improve the quality of operations and create a favorable business environment.

The "Entrepreneur Coffee" model originated in Dong Thap, the model of the center for public administration, the center of promotion and investment support, the Competitiveness Index at the departmental, branch, district and district level (DDCI) successfully deployed in Quang Ninh, Tuyen Quang, and has been replicated in over 40 to 50 provinces and cities across the country.

However, the administrative reform efforts in recent years are still difficult. Enterprises expect reform activities to be more focused in some troublesome areas such as land, tax and social insurance. Governments at all levels need to further strengthen transparency and accountability.

Quang Ninh continues to be the champion of reform, what lessons will this spread to localities in supporting enterprises?

The reform journey in Quang Ninh is a journey based on a solid foundation, from the reform vision, strategy and model.

In particular, the government's reform made a great contribution, such as the establishment of public administrative centers, the promotion of investment support under the province, the development of the DDCI indicator set, the business of coffee, the private-public investment partnership, has been implemented effectively.

Therefore, if experiences and models like this in Quang Ninh spread, it will contribute to drastically improve the management quality of localities.

With the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic, how should local administrative reforms be changed to better support businesses?

Factors contributing to the successful development of the Vietnamese economy and enterprises in the context of Covid-19 was the foundation many years ago, created room for fiscal and monetary policies to support enterprises.

In addition, the administrative reform efforts in recent years, especially the efforts from the beginning of the 2016 term to 2018 with the removal of thousands of sub-licenses, cutting business conditions, and building e-Government, are all important elements of the business environment, helping businesses to develop conditions in a normal context, to stand firm in the Covid-19 context.

During the Covid-19 crisis, the support packages with immediate nature to respond have been quite synchronous, inclusive and effective by the Government. But the implementation process still has many points to learn from, so the effectiveness has not been as high as expected.

In the administrative apparatus from central to local to grassroots levels, the organization of the implementation of regulations of the policy is still a point that needs to be paid attention to further improve.

We still have a lot of work to do such as improving institutions, eliminating overlaps, but law enforcement will be the key to successful policy implementation.

In the proposals of enterprises to the localities, enterprises expect the new Government term will continue to see the Government's action, how everything is done consistently from top to bottom. This year's PCI report also clearly shows the reality, if in any locality, there is a consistency between senior leaders and subordinate officials, to each department, the business environment, competitiveness and operation efficiency will be better.