Clear and achievable reform space

The Provincial Departments, Branches and Sectors Competitiveness Index (SBN) and District People's Committees (DDCI) of Thanh Hoa have gone through 3 "seasons" of assessment. In each year, the rankings and DDCI scores of the subjects being assessed are disrupted compared to previous years. However, in addition to the expectation of changing the quality of management due to "competition" when "being" scored and ranked, DDCI aims for a higher goal of frankly seeing the room for reform that needs to continue to be pursued.

Production operation at Long Son Cement Company Operation Center (Bim Son town).

Indicators to note

The results of the DDCI announcement in 2023 of Thanh Hoa province show that the median score of the DDCI index of both SBNs and district-level People's Committees has decreased slightly compared to 2022. Specifically, the median score of SBNs in 2023 is 60.76 points, down 6.04 points compared to 2022. The median score of district-level People's Committees in 2023 is 60.99 points, 6.2 points lower than in 2022. Although these are not too large decreases, they show that the quality of management of provincial SBNs and district-level authorities is somewhat less positive according to the assessment of the business community.

In particular, for the SBN block, while the scores between units tend to be more balanced and this year no unit is ranked in the "not good" group, the median score of the entire block has decreased, showing that the scores of units in the upper half of the rankings tend to decrease compared to last year...

Not only the overall score, but also the median score of the component indexes should be noted. Accordingly, the SBN block recorded a significant decrease in 5/7 indexes compared to 2022; in which "Dynamism and role of the leader", "Transparency and access to information" are the two indexes with the sharpest decrease in scores, at -1.04 points and -1.00 points. For the district-level People's Committee block, 7/8 indexes had their scores decreased, in which the "Equal competition" index had the sharpest decrease in score -1.75 points; the "Transparency and access to information" index also had its score significantly decreased -1.03 points. This shows that the fair competitive environment between enterprises is the aspect that needs to be improved the most in the coming time.

More specifically, in the ranking and scores of each DDCI component index, there are still many "bottlenecks" that SBNs and localities recognize and orient and plan solutions to improve more clearly. Typically, in the district-level People's Committee block, analysis of the transparency and access to information index shows that, in addition to the impressive top 5 with very high scores such as Hoang Hoa district, Sam Son city, Nong Cong district, Dong Son district and Thanh Hoa city, there are up to 3 units with very low scores and ranked in the "not good" group, which are the People's Committees of Lang Chanh, Muong Lat, and Cam Thuy districts. Some units have significantly reduced scores in this index compared to 2022, such as the districts: Hau Loc, Nhu Xuan, Quan Hoa, Trieu Son, Vinh Loc, and Nga Son, with levels from -1.81 to -1.32 points.

It is known that the transparency and access to information index of the district-level People's Committee block is made up of 12 specific indicators of 4 groups of criteria: Effectiveness of electronic information portal; public disclosure of processes, procedures, and information; evaluation of issued documents; ease of accessing information. DDCI analysis with this index also showed that although the average score of this year's indicators is also quite high, only 1/12 indicators have a higher score than last year, the remaining 11/12 indicators have a lower score than last year.

Along with that, with the time cost index of the district-level People's Committee block, the 2023 ranking recorded Sam Son City as the leading unit, with 8.92 points. Second place is Hoang Hoa district, with 8.76 points. On the other hand, Nghi Son town and Muong Lat district are the two units at the bottom of the table, with 5.10 and 5.15 points. Notably, this is the second year Nghi Son town is at the bottom of the table in this index.

Regarding the SBN block, while the unofficial cost scores of the leading units are very high, such as the Provincial People's Committee Office with 9.59 points; the Department of Industry and Trade with 8.85 points, some units at the bottom are only scored at very low levels, such as: Department of Education and Training with 4.95 points; Market Management Department with 5.19 points; Provincial Social Insurance with 5.19 points; Department of Natural Resources and Environment with 5.73 points...

Also in this index, the constituent indicators clearly reflect the situation of enterprises having to pay informal costs such as: 26% of enterprises responded that they were forced to pay informal costs if they wanted the work to be handled smoothly by SBN, a slight increase compared to the rate of 22% in 2022. Regarding the criteria group "prevalence of harassment", 76% of enterprises assessed that the phenomenon of causing difficulties for enterprises at SBN tended to decrease compared to 2022, however, about 25% of enterprises still reflected that the phenomenon of harassment was still common at SBN; in which, it is worth noting, in some SBNs, the rate of enterprises reflecting harassment was still up to 59%.

Towards a more equal and friendly business environment

After analyzing and evaluating DDCI 2023, VCCI Thanh Hoa - Ninh Binh Branch recommended a number of specific issues in groups that need to be focused on for further improvement.

Civil servants of departments and branches handle administrative procedures for businesses and people at the Thanh Hoa Provincial Public Administration Service Center.

Accordingly, in both SBN and district-level People's Committees, although the business support index has improved in terms of scores, it is still important to note that in some localities, the work of receiving people and periodically having dialogues with businesses is still not well implemented. The rate of businesses invited and participating in business dialogue activities in some localities is still low; at the same time, the business community in some localities has not yet appreciated the seriousness in handling business recommendations. These are aspects that need to be paid special attention to by some localities to improve.

Regarding security and order, in general, Thanh Hoa localities have quite good scores and no locality has a score below average, but in some important indicators, there are still localities with notably low scores. Notably, in some localities, only about 71% of enterprises said that "they do not have to pay protection costs"; even in some localities, only 55% of enterprises said that "the phenomenon of paying for protection services or informal social support to have peace of mind in production and business in the area is not common". Therefore, localities with low scores in these indicators need to review security and order work in the area, ensuring that enterprises can focus on developing production and business with peace of mind.

In particular, the issue of land access in localities and the settlement of administrative procedures related to land continues to be a low-scoring area, with 16/27 localities having scores below average. The difference in scores between the top and bottom groups in this index is also particularly large, partly reflecting the large differences in terrain, population density and urbanization density of localities in the province. Therefore, Thanh Hoa province needs to promote specialized and innovative solutions to improve land access for each locality.

Along with that, aspects related to business harassment and unofficial costs, although slightly improved in some indicators, have not fundamentally changed compared to two years ago. Therefore, this continues to be an issue that needs attention. VCCI Thanh Hoa - Ninh Binh Branch also recommends that it may still be necessary to consider conducting more in-depth surveys to have a basis for proposing reasonable solutions, especially for some SBNs and localities with a high rate of negative feedback from businesses. In addition, it is necessary to continue improving business inspection work, reducing cases of multiple inspections and prolonged inspections.

Regarding the fair competition index, many units in the province this year have had a sharp decrease in this index, of which 11/27 district-level People's Committees have "not good" scores. Nearly half (45-46%) of enterprises still feel that the government gives more priority to large enterprises and foreign-invested enterprises than to small and medium-sized enterprises. Even nearly 1/3 of enterprises participating in the survey said that government bidding and procurement contracts "mainly fall into the hands of interest groups". Therefore, localities need to have solutions to improve this index; at the same time, it is necessary to improve information and propaganda work so that the business community can better understand the management policies of the government. The group of localities that need to pay attention to improving this index is with a score below 4, including the People's Committees of the districts: Hau Loc, Thuong Xuan, Quan Hoa, Trieu Son, Quan Son, Cam Thuy and Nghi Son town.

It is known that in the third year of conducting the DDCI survey, the research team has made certain adjustments to the survey method, in order to bring more authentic results, reflecting more accurately the opinions of the business community. The results of this survey will continue to contribute to Thanh Hoa province in building a DDCI database foundation, helping provincial leaders, SBN leaders and district-level People's Committees monitor the level of change of indicators and targets, thereby providing more accurate, correct and practical policies in supporting businesses, improving the investment and business environment of the province and each locality.

Article and photos: Minh Hang

Source: https://baothanhhoa.vn/danh-gia-ddci-nhung-du-dia-cai-cach-nhin-ro-va-huong-toi-220405.htm