Quang Ninh government to be assessed by businesses

DDCI, also known as the set of indicators to improve competitiveness at departmental, sectoral and local levels, has been implemented by Quang Ninh since 2015 with the goal of creating competition in economic management quality among the government, districts, towns, cities; departments and branches of the province. After 6 years of construction, evaluation and record, at the Announcement Ceremony of DDCI 2020 organized by Quang Ninh province, the spirit of emulation and exciting competition has taken place.

Each component index of DDCI is an important measure for each unit to review its operating quality, thereby continuing to have more effective solutions, especially in solving legitimate business needs, creating an open environment and better investment attraction.

With the attitude of being progressive, Quang Ninh has constantly sought and actively opened many channels to receive opinions to listen, create an open, friendly space between authorities at all levels, agencies and sectors, and investors, businesses.

Grading the authorities through the vote of the business

Quang Ninh is one of the pioneer localities empowering the investor and business community to "measure" the grassroots executive government apparatus (DDCI Quang Ninh) through survey "votes". This synchronous participation promises to help continue to improve the quality of management and more closely follow the needs and aspirations of investors and businesses.

After 6 years of construction, from the first piloting in 2015 until now, the Quang Ninh DDCI measurement toolkit has become more and more effective and highly applicable.

The participation, respondence of more responsible investors, the business community and the appreciation of a team of experts and media agencies have confirmed the correctness and prestige of the index and implementation method.

In discussion with Zing, Mr. Nguyen Hai Ha, Head of Administrative Procedures Division, Quang Ninh Public Administration Service Center said that the feature of the unit is where departments, sectors and branches appoint staff to directly contact businesses and investors to receive administrative procedures, so Quang Ninh province focuses deeply on improving the quality of officials.

In particular, the provincial Administration Service Center develops working regulations and a code of conduct for officials, public employees and workers in the department which they directly receive and handle administrative procedures to have the right attitude when dealing with businesses and investors. During the implementation process, the Center appoints an independent working group for monitoring and having the closest assessment of working attitude.

In addition, the center also issued assessment sheets based on the criteria in the DDCI index for people who come to do administrative procedures to comment on the attitude of officials. “Through many assessment measures, the quality of staff at the Center has changed significantly and positively. We conduct an open and transparent survey to provide the most standard indicators, helping the province to closely assess the level of administrative reform and the satisfaction of businesses with departments, agencies, and localities”, Mr. Ha said.

Citizens and investors score the attitude of officials through the one-stop system of the Center for Public Administration. Photo: Quoc Nam.

In the coming time, Quang Ninh Administration Service Center will continue to sincerely, regularly and continuously survey and collect opinions of organizations and individuals in handling administrative procedures at all levels and the department to receive and return results at the commune level; meanwhile, the process of survey results according to regulations. Quang Ninh Administration Service Center receives and handles complaints and recommendations of individuals and organizations about administrative procedures and results, ensuring 100% of complaints and petitions are resolved in a timely and correct manner.

As of mid-August, the Provincial Administration Service Center received 3,295 survey questionnaires (equivalent to 11% of the total number of resolved applications), of which 100% were satisfied and very satisfied.

At the district level, 22,270 surveys were collected (equivalent to 5% of the total number of resolved cases), of which 100% of the votes were satisfied and very satisfied. At the commune level, 44,775 questionnaires were collected (equivalent to 14% of the total number of records resolved), of which 100% were satisfied and very satisfied.

Listen to businesses through social networks

In order to publicize support policies and receive direct opinions of businesses and investors, the province deploys a variety of information channels on social networks, Quang Ninh is the first locality in the country to build a fanpage DDCI Quang Ninh, connected with the DDCI fanpage of the same departments and agencies. After 6 years of construction, the page now has over 11,000 followers and participation. In addition, Quang Ninh has set up a Zalo Quang Ninh Investor Care page to provide information about the business investment environment as well as to receive, interact and respond to recommendations and proposals of businesses.

Quang Ninh provincial government uses social networks to interact with residents and investors. Photo: Quoc Nam.

At the announcement ceremony of the DDCI Quang Ninh index 2020, Mr. Dau Anh Tuan, Head of VCCI Legal Department, Director of the National PCI Project, said that the collection of DDCI investigation information can help Quang Ninh come up with policies to support businesses, serving a bigger goal. "Through DDCI, Quang Ninh has forced departments, branches and localities to listen to businesses more, have more accountability, and be more specific to the province on business-related issues," said Mr. Tuan Anh.

The DDCI index also helps departments, branches and localities form the habit of regularly reviewing, evaluating the quality of management, especially in addressing legitimate needs of businesses, creating an open investment environment.

In addition, Mr. Tuan Anh said that the DDCI survey not only assesses the interaction between businesses and the government, but also can assess the problems of enterprises. Thus, the province can clearly identify the weaknesses of private enterprises to offer support, training and consulting programs. The ultimate goal is to improve the capacity and level of Quang Ninh private enterprises.

In the 6th year of conducting the DDCI index survey, Quang Ninh province continues to innovate its form as well as to receive the response of the business community. More than 6,500 businesses, cooperatives and business households in the area participated, ranked satisfaction with the quality of economic management of 34 units including 13 localities and 21 departments and sectors in 2020. In the first online survey, Quang Ninh also received a response rate of more than 36% from businesses, the highest ever.

Along with the contents on governance capacity, innovation activities at enterprises and corporate social responsibility, DDCI Quang Ninh 2020 adds content related to the impact of the Covid-19 epidemic to the business activities.

Another content added to the time-cost part of DDCI Quang Ninh is to assess the phenomenon of “responsibility shifting between departments, sectors or shifting to higher authorities”; adjusted some content of component indexes to better reflect the new requirements posed to departments, agencies, districts, towns and cities.