Dong Nai is standing at the threshold of a historic development milestone. Within this context, the locality's mission is to firmly maintain its position in the top tier of socio-economic development and investment attraction, while demonstrating a competitive edge that matches its elevated stature.

With the objective of striving for a double-digit economic growth target in 2026 as well as the subsequent period, Dong Nai City is robustly deploying administrative procedure reform solutions, sharpening its competitive edge, and architecting a favorable business environment for enterprises.

Forging Breakthrough Steps

Dong Nai currently stands as Vietnam's 7th municipality directly under the Central Government, boasting a large population and economic scale, embodying the stature and position of a region-level city, and exerting a spillover effect across both the region and the entire country.

Alongside economic development, a series of strategic infrastructure projects are being accelerated, including: Ring Road 3, Ring Road 4 - Ho Chi Minh City, the Bien Hoa - Vung Tau Expressway, the expansion of the Ho Chi Minh City - Long Thanh Expressway, and the connecting routes to Long Thanh International Airport. Once in operation, these works will expand the development space and elevate the city's competitiveness, not only in the current year but for many years to come.

According to the latest Provincial Competitiveness Index (PCI) announcement, Dong Nai continues to sit within the group of localities with quite good economic governance quality, yet it has not created a breakthrough commensurate with its true potential. Multiple sub-indices—such as market entry, land access, time costs, and the dynamism of the local government—have yet to break into the nation's top tier.

With its new status, Dong Nai needs to aim toward the national leading group in the PCI rankings, especially as the competition now takes place among just 34 provinces and cities following administrative consolidations. In this new phase of development, investors no longer select a locality based solely on tax incentives or land rental prices; instead, they focus much more on transparency, policy predictability, and the operational efficiency of the public administrative apparatus.

Dong Nai is making many positive moves to change this. The city identifies improving the PCI as a core task in economic governance while simultaneously accelerating digital transformation, administrative procedure reform, and the building of an electronic government. The implementation of a 2-tier local government model post-consolidation also presents an opportunity to streamline the apparatus, reduce intermediate tiers, and shorten processing times for citizens and enterprises.

According to Dau Anh Tuan, Deputy Secretary-General of the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI), provincial governance quality still holds substantial room for reform. Major opportunities lie within the execution of business support policies, resource access, fair competition, and a facilitating government. These are areas where Dong Nai holds a distinct advantage compared to the national average.

From the business community's perspective, Nguyen Phuong, Chairman of the Dong Nai Wood and Handicraft Association, shared his expectations: With an urban government model, Dong Nai City will continue to translate policies accompanying businesses into substantive, highly effective actions. This creates an opportunity for the local business community to maximize their dynamism and creativity, rising forward in production and business while contributing back to the city's development.

Elevating Competitive Capability

Over the past years, Dong Nai has synchronously deployed numerous solutions aimed at raising the validity and efficiency of state management, taking citizens and enterprises as the core focus of service. The city has been stepping up decentralization and the delegation of power tied to accountability, finalizing digital infrastructure, strengthening the training of cadres and civil servants, and expanding data integration and sharing with ministries, central agencies, and fellow localities to further elevate service quality toward a transparent, efficient, sustainable, and highly competitive investment environment within the region and the country.

According to the Resolution of the 1st Congress of the Dong Nai City Party Committee for the 2025-2030 tenure, the development of science and technology, innovation, digital transformation, and administrative reform stands as one of the 3 strategic development breakthroughs for Dong Nai in the coming period.

Tran Ngoc Liem, Director of the Ho Chi Minh City Regional Branch of the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI-HCM), stated that the branch will coordinate closely with the Dong Nai city government, departments, sectors, and local business associations to improve the PCI score as well as other sub-indices.

The city has also issued its Core Administrative Reform Plan for the 2026-2030 period. Dong Nai divides its administrative reform roadmap into 2 distinct phases with concrete targets to ensure feasibility and execution efficiency:

During the 2026-2027 period, the city will focus on perfecting the foundation of administrative reform, standardizing processes, and accelerating digital transformation. The set targets are for 100% of eligible administrative procedures to be provided as full-process online public services, and 100% of administrative procedure settlement results to be issued in electronic format. Along with that, the city will step up efforts to increase the rate of online dossiers, digitalize dossiers and settlement results, and enhance data exploitation and utilization. Additionally, 100% of national digital platforms are to be deployed and operated effectively, and all agencies and units must reach level 3 in data governance maturity according to the established roadmap.

In the subsequent 2028-2030 period, the city will focus on elevating the quality, efficiency, and sustainability of administrative reform. The city will strive to maintain its position within the country's leading group regarding the Digital Transformation Index (DTI) and the Administrative Reform Index (PAR Index), while aiming for the Satisfaction Index of Public Administrative Services (SIPAS) to reach a minimum of 95%.

Dong Nai will continue to robustly improve its investment environment and raise its Provincial Competitiveness Index (PCI). It will also focus on developing transportation infrastructure, logistics, energy, and human resources, alongside increasing dialogue and perfecting mechanisms and policies for local economic development. According to Member of the Standing Committee of the City Party Committee and Permanent Vice Chairman of the City People's Committee Nguyen Kim Long, the city will deploy solutions to shorten the processing time for administrative procedures, push forward decentralization, drive digital transformation, and heighten the responsibility of the cadre and civil servant workforce in public duty execution.

Vương Thế

Source: https://baodongnai.com.vn/