Hanoi would apply the mindset of fighting Covid-19 to economic development, ensuring all business activities to return to normal as soon as possible, said Chairman of the Hanoi People’s Committee Nguyen Duc Chung at a recent government conference.

Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc (m) and Hanoi's Mayor Nguyen Duc Chung attended the launch of smart city project from BRG Group (Vietnam) and Sumitomo (Japan).

Over the past five years, administrative reform and improvements in business environments have been considered Hanoi’s priorities, for which, all action plans and directives of the municipal People’s Committee and Party Committee have shared the common principle of making the interests of the people and enterprises at the center of attention.

This has resulted in Hanoi’s high rankings in the 2019 Provincial Competitiveness Index (CPI) and the 2019 Public Administration Reform (PAR) Index.

Specifically, Hanoi continued to stay in the second place nationwide in the 2019 PAR Index for a third consecutive year with a score of 84.64%, slightly up from 83.98% in 2018. Meanwhile, the city’s PCI 2019 score stood at 68.8, up 3.4 points against the previous year, helping Hanoi maintain its place in the top 10, at 9^th out of 63 provinces/cities.

It is worth mentioning that Hanoi’s PCI scores have been on the rise for the last seven years. Of the 10 PCI sub-indices, Hanoi has three with scores in the top 10 nationwide, including the “Business Support Services” at 4^th.

The number of newly established enterprises is also a key indicator showing the trust of investors and businesses to the local authorities. Since 2016 to early May 2020, Hanoi had over 107,200 new businesses with registered capital of a combined VND1,300 trillion (US$55.85 billion), up 1.36 times against the previous five-year period in the number of enterprises and recording an average growth of 9.6% annually.

Hanoi has also been at the top nationwide in terms of foreign direct investment (FDI) attraction in two consecutive years of 2019 and 2019 with a total of US$23.7 billion, representing a nearly 4-fold increase compared to the 2011 – 2015 period.

Moreover, Hanoi’s leaders have been prioritizing administrative reform to ensure the most favorable conditions for people and enterprises, as Mayor Chung once said this would be a key solution to help attract both domestic and foreign investments.

This is evident in the aftermath of Covid-19 outbreak, as Hanoi has been mobilizing efforts to pursue a dual target of containing the pandemic and boosting economic recovery.

Shimizu Akira, chief representative of the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) Vietnam, stressed even during the pandemic, the construction of major projects, including those of JICA, were still allowed to go on and have progressed on schedule.

According to Akira, this is a major difference from some other JICA-funded projects in other parts of the world which have been delayed due to the pandemic.

In the future, Chung said Hanoi would continue improving the business environment for greater competitiveness, with a focus on IT application and transparency to reduce costs and time for businesses.

For this year, Hanoi aims for an economic growth 1.3 times the national average. Since February, Hanoi had set up a task force specialized in economic recovery efforts.

Among measures to boost economic recovery, Hanoi has been focusing on the development of industry and construction sectors, agriculture, domestic tourism, along with sectors having advantages during the Covid-19 crisis, such as IT, public online services, production of medical equipment, among others.