Dong Nai among strong performers in PCI 2025

On May 15 in Hanoi, the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) announced the results of the 2025 Provincial Competitiveness Index (PCI 2025).

This year marks a special milestone as the Provincial Competitiveness Index enters its 21st year of capturing business feedback, reflecting the quality of economic governance and promoting business environment reforms across Vietnam.

Notably, this is also the first report introducing PCI 2.0, a comprehensively upgraded version of the Provincial Competitiveness Index designed to measure governance quality within the country’s new administrative structure of 34 provinces and cities.

Compared with previous versions, PCI 2.0 expands the assessment scope from the “business environment” to the broader “private-sector development ecosystem.” The new framework consists of nine component indices reflecting areas ranging from market entry conditions and access to resources to transparency, fair competition, and the enabling role of local governments.

Accordingly, PCI 2.0 has been restructured into nine component indices with 98 indicators, including market entry, access to resources, transparency, administrative compliance costs, informal charges, fair competition, business support policies, legal institutions, and facilitating governance.

Unlike previous years, VCCI has shifted from publishing detailed rankings to grouping localities by governance quality, a move aimed at reflecting the post-merger administrative context and aligning more closely with international practices. The nationwide median PCI score reached 63.9 points on a 100-point scale.

According to the report, five localities were classified as having high governance quality, namely Bac Ninh, Da Nang, Hai Phong, Phu Tho, and Quang Ninh.

Meanwhile, Dong Nai was placed among the above-average performers in provincial and municipal competitiveness. Several of Dong Nai’s component indexes achieved high scores, particularly those related to market entry and administrative compliance costs.

Production activities at Trans Machine Technologies Viet Nam Co., Ltd. in Nhon Trach 3 Industrial Park. Photo: Hai Quan

The PCI 2025 database was built on two complementary sources: survey-based data and official administrative statistics.

The first source consists of survey data that directly captures the experiences and assessments of the business community regarding local business environments. In 2025, the report collected valid feedback from 3,546 domestic private enterprises across 34 provinces and cities nationwide.

The second source comprises official statistical data, commonly referred to as “hard data,” extracted from the reporting systems of state agencies across various sectors, including administration, justice, labor, education, and science and technology.

By H. Quan – Translated by M.Nguyet, Minho