Behind the "crown" of the reform champion in Quang Ninh and the secret for people's security of the Provincial Party Committee Secretary

With an overall PCI score of 75.09 points in 2020, Quang Ninh is the leading province, up 1.69 points over the same period and is the champion for 4 consecutive years. This is also the only province that has surpassed 75 PCI points since 2010.

Talking to reporters, Mr. Nguyen Xuan Ky, Secretary of the Quang Ninh Provincial Party Committee, believed that Quang Ninh's biggest success in reform was in terms of infrastructure.

"Quang Ninh is a locality that absolutely does not ask for money from the central government and does not have any mechanism" - Mr. Ky affirmed, "We would like to pilot a successful public-private partnership and issue Decree 15/2015/ND-CP investing in the form of a public-private partnership and then becomes an input for the Law on Investment in the form of a public-private partnership No. 64/2020/QH14".

"The most difficult period was when Mr. Pham Minh Chinh was still Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee. It was he who laid the foundation for that, then we had the success in infrastructure like today" - Secretary of Quang Ninh added.

Quang Ninh is very proud, because infrastructure reform is not only for Quang Ninh. Now that the airport, port, and from Van Don are finished to Mong Cai at the end of this year, the entire northern region from Lao Cai down, the two belt corridors will be promoted when there is strategic infrastructure.

From Hanoi to Mong Cai, only 3 hours, is a long-standing wish. From Hai Phong to Mong Cai is only about 1.5 hours, shortening the distance to the most developed regions, not only China but also Northeast Asia.

This will be a driving force, a gateway for Vietnam - ASEAN - China, and Quang Ninh plays an important role due to geo-politics and geo-economics.

"We have completed the project, which is of national significance, not only of provincial significance," affirmed Quang Ninh Secretary.

This will be a work that will fundamentally change the development of Quang Ninh province in the future, along with the existing infrastructure, then the poverty cluster will be promoted. If traveling from Hanoi to Quang Ninh in just 3 hours, there will be a lot of people going, now it's good to go but they are still shy because the travel time is still a lot, not to mention the safety. In the old days, moving took almost a day, way too terrible, too strenuous.

Or merging Hoanh Bo district into Ha Long city will create a new space. Ha Long city is positioned as one of the cities in the northern development pole along with Hanoi and Hai Phong. Ha Long has a leading role in the field of tourism, services and the marine economy. Ha Long city has a new space, will have more spatial resources for more sustainable development, shaping an urban area with green trees and water surface at a very breakthrough rate.

For example, the Cuu Luc 1 and Cuu Luc 3 bridges will be formed by the end of 2021... These can be said to be projects of very strategic significance that Quang Ninh is implementing. In addition, there are works from Bach Dang bridge to Dong Trieu with 10-lane road, exploiting the entire riverbank with dozens of hectares of tidal flats along the river, along the coast left untouched, will now be awakened completely from provincial resources.

"Infrastructure is what we think is the most successful" - Mr. Ky strongly acknowledged.

On April 14, Quang Ninh was announced to be at the top of the PAPI index, and the next day, April 15, was named the champion in the PCI rankings.

According to Mr. Nguyen Xuan Ky, in terms of administrative reform, this province has had a "brand" for many years. For 3 consecutive years, Quang Ninh topped the Par Index (Public Administration Reform Index). In 2020, Quang Ninh also topped the SIPAS (Satisfaction Index of Public Administrative Services) and recently won first place in the PAPI 2020 ranking (Public Administration Performance Index).

These indicators are closely related to each other, although they are different in terms of assessment objects, they are still essentially a story of administrative reform and business investment environment on the basis of 3 factors: Organization human apparatus, technology, process. It can be said that Quang Ninh is a true champion among 63 provinces in terms of reform.

In the PCI 2020 Survey, the business community in Quang Ninh recognized the efforts of the provincial government in improving the business environment. Specifically, 89% of businesses evaluated that the provincial government applied the law flexibly to create a favorable business environment for businesses. 79% of enterprises said that the provincial government is dynamic and creative in solving newly arising problems.

97% of enterprises received a response from the provincial government agency after reporting difficulties and problems and 81% were satisfied with the solution of the provincial government agency.

The request for "3 reductions" in administrative procedure reform (reducing procedures, reducing time, reducing costs for investors) has been continuously implemented by the provincial government since 2017 and has brought positive results. According to the assessment of enterprises: 71% of enterprises rated the paper procedures as simple (in 2019 it was 66%), 84% of enterprises said that the time to carry out procedures is shortened compared to regulations (in 2019 it was 76%).

The burden of informal expenses of enterprises in Quang Ninh has also been reduced, when only 3% of enterprises have to pay over 10% of revenue for this expenditure (in 2019 it was 5%). The quality of business support services in the area has improved significantly, with a high percentage of businesses saying they will continue to use certain types of services at a high level, for example, market information search services (81%), legal consulting services (88%) and technology-related services (75%).

Mr. Ky said that administrative reform is a very outstanding achievement but it is very difficult to keep. Therefore, Quang Ninh is the only province out of 63 provinces to include PCI, Par-index, PAPI, SIPAS... in the Resolution of the Party Congress, that is, it cannot be changed, only the organization implements to fulfill its commitment to the people, this is the challenge, the pressure but also the motivation to focus on development.

"But the story is not about ranking, but creating a solid foundation for faster digital transformation in terms of economy, society, smart city. That's the core problem, there's nothing significant to rank up" said Mr. Ky. "But to make the story of developing the digital economy and ranking digital, the story of smart citizens and the number of officials who can use smart infrastructure is not an easy story, especially for Quang Ninh. We are having to do it very aggressively."

Quang Ninh Secretary emphasized that thanks to those foundations of administrative reform, when facing non-traditional challenges, especially Covid-19, Quang Ninh still stands.

"The point is very important, Quang Ninh has its own secret. In other places there are 4 on the spot, in Quang Ninh, there are 3 first. "3 first, 4 on the spot" can successfully fight the epidemic "- Mr. Ky said.

The first 3 are: there must be pre-cognition from afar, early, must be prepared in advance, and must act in advance. The pandemic into the house is no different from the invaders entering the house, if you let it in, it won't be in time, so you have to act first.

In traditional security whoever strikes first wins, in non-traditional security, it is the same. Therefore, although the epidemic is still far from the border, Quang Ninh has closed the border. This is a theoretical success in Quang Ninh's epidemic prevention and control. And formula 3 first, 4 in the spot has now become applicable to the whole epidemic prevention system.

In the first quarter of 2021, Quang Ninh continues to be the center of the epidemic. At that time, there were 2 localities where the epidemic occurred: Quang Ninh and Hai Duong - on the same day, in which Quang Ninh’s was at Van Don airport.

At that time, Quang Ninh leaders announced to keep the area and control the disease after 10 days of the outbreak (ie, about 28 Tet). With the 3 first 4 in the spot, being proactive in epidemic prevention and control, the Provincial Secretary and President personally went to the epidemic center, Dong Trieu, to see how the actual anti-epidemic situation was, whether it was safe or not. On the 28th of Tet, the epidemic was controlled, all people in the province except Dong Trieu could celebrate Tet in a new normal state.

"1 million/1 million 320 thousand people in Quang Ninh were affected by epidemiological factors, but we only finished the epidemic in a week and locked it down. We still grew by 9.02%, budget revenue is still over tens of trillions of billion, people still have a stable life, create habits and have a higher awareness of epidemic prevention and control caused by new strains." said Mr. Ky.

On the other hand, Quang Ninh still stands firm, especially in the economy, despite the serious impact of the pandemic on tourism. Previously, in 2019, tourism accounted for 45% of the economic structure of Quang Ninh. In 2020, only about 43% remains, but it is still the mainstay, and Quang Ninh grows 10.25%. Quang Ninh's economic scale is currently about 220 trillion, approximately 10 billion USD, ranking third in the North after Hanoi (more than 100 trillion) and Hai Phong (280 trillion).

During Covid-19, in addition to the Government's support, Quang Ninh also has a special stimulus package, more than 300 billion, to promote the domestic tourism market, by not collecting tickets to visit Ha Long Bay, no fees to visit Yen Tu, Library Museum, bus support... This year, from the beginning of the year, Quang Ninh has issued a resolution for a stimulus package of 500 billion VND, distributed in the tourism industry chain, as a "medicine" for travel businesses, tour operators, even motorbike taxi drivers, selling water...

Regarding Covid-19, besides Hanoi and Hai Phong, Quang Ninh is also a locality to maintain active resources to vaccinate the entire population. For the 2016-2020 term, Quang Ninh also has 19 separate policies on social security. In terms of investing in healthcare, education, roads, environment, in other words as a project to solve regional disparities, Quang Ninh already has resolutions and resources.

Thus, it can be said that the durability and endurance of the whole economy, as well as each region and each enterprise, have passed a step of refinement.

"That shows the direction of transforming from brown to green, transforming all three areas in a synchronous manner to ensure sustainability, which since decades ago when Party Secretary Pham Minh Chinh was here, through the Politburo reporting scheme, is a correct strategy." said Mr. Ky.

All this is due to the durability of the political system, the ability to adapt to local governance in the context of non-traditional security challenges. This is the process of building for decades in the process of arranging the apparatus and the team, not just one day or two.

Satisfied with the achieved results, Quang Ninh Secretary said that the economic system, the political system and the social system, especially the people of Quang Ninh, can be said to be relatively stable in terms of sustainable development goals. This sustainable development also requires guidance to achieve the goal that people must be well-off and happy, trust must be better, and borders must be stable. In particular, the living environment, including both the natural environment and the social environment, the criteria for a safe and secure society, and social discipline must also be good.

"After all, our forefathers taught us, we have to nurture the people and keep the people safe. If we don't tolerate the people, we can't develop sustainably. People's trust in the Quang Ninh government also comes from there." - Mr. Ky said.