VIETNAM ACADEMY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES GRADUATE ACADEMY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES NONG MINH TRANG SOLUTIONS TO ENHANCE THE COMPETITIVENESS CAPACITY OF HA TINH PROVINCE Major: Economic Management Code: 9.34.04.10 SUMMARY OF ECONOMICS DOCTORAL THESIS HANOI - 2019 The Thesis has been completed at: GRADUATE ACADEMY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES The science supervisors: Associate Professor Ph.D Nguyen Dinh Tho Doctor Luong Minh Huan Reviewer 1: Associate Professor Ph.D Tran Dinh Thien Reviewer 2: Associate Professor Ph.D Hoang Van Bang Reviewer 3: Associate Professor Ph.D Le Xuan Dinh The Thesis will be upheld in front of the Thesis Grading Council at Academy level in the meeting at Graduate Academy of Social Sciences, 477 Nguyen Trai, Thanh Xuan At … date… …month… ….year … The information of the Thesis can be found out at the library: - Vietnam National Library - The library of Graduate Academy of Social Sciences INTRODUCTION The pressing and necessary characteristics of the research topic Global competitiveness is getting severe and pushing countries including Vietnam, which has to continuously enhance the competitiveness capacity to exist and develop Our country is in the period of changing the growing model in economy to enhance national competitiveness capacity In fact, the competitiveness capacity of a country always has a closely reciprocal relationship with its local competitiveness capacity Thus, enhancing the competitiveness capacity at provincial level in our country will positively contribute to the national competitiveness capacity of Vietnam In Vietnam, provinces are the local administrative level below the central level; they have the direct and close relationship with the central level, at the same time that they play an important role in executing the Party’s guidelines and policies and Central Government’s policies and laws Since being decentralized in economic management by the Government, provincial level is playing an important role in developing society and economy, in exploitating, attracting and using resoures for a sustainable development However, most of Vietnamese provinces are severely competing with their neighbors, currently facing the overlap, sychronous lack of legal documents of ministries, central agencies in investment capital, lands, developing planning, business and investment environment, especially lack of synchronous cooporation between concerned departments and branches of provinces in sloving difficulties in production, business for enteprises and economic sector in order to maximize the internal capacity of local economies, etc Ha Tinh is one of provinces at North Central region and Central coastal It is a very geographically - politically and geographically -important in the development of Vietnam, Laos and the Mekong sub-region countries Implementing Resolution 02 / NQ - CP of the Government on continuing to perform key tasks and solutions to improve the business environment and enhance national competitiveness, Ha Tinh has been implementing many synchronus solutions to improve competitiveness capacity at the provincial level to drastically improve the business and investment environment to create sustainable development The initial results from the above efforts of Ha Tinh have rapidly increased the number of newly established enterprises, significantly reduced the rate of enterprises of which operations are dissolved and ceased; drastically reduced time costs, unofficial expenses for market entry of enterprises and people; drastically increased the amount of social investment capital in agriculture, industry and services, etc; especially the provincial government has made great progress in education, health, culture and society; The life in all aspects of the people of Ha Tinh is initially improved and enhanced etc However, in general, the government of Ha Tinh province has not yet effectively exploited the geographical advantages in comparision of the high percentage of high school graduates to develop high qualified human resources; has not yet effectively exploited the geographical advantage in the absolute comparison of deep-water seaport and the location of traffic hubs between the Southern and the Northern of Vietnam and the Mekong sub-region to attract investment in order to make Ha Tinh become the logistics center of the Central region; not yet has fully exploited the geographical advantage in comparision of scenic beauty, marine resources, cultural and historical traditions , etc in order to attract investment capital for developing the tourism sector; It has not yet exploited appropriately geographic advantages in comparision of terrain, geography and natural resources to attract investment capital and modern technology in order to develop clean energy such as wind power, solar power and to attract modern technology in order to develop high quality endemic agricultural products, etc The consequence of this situation is that the competitiveness capacity of the government of Ha Tinh province is still low, only reaching the average level compared to the whole country; socio-economic development of Ha Tinh is not high, labor productivity is only at a low average level, average income per capita is at average level; Poverty alleviation activities are not effective and sustainable compared to many provinces in the North Central region and Central Coast, etc From the above reality, the Thesis author has chosen the topic “Solutions to enhance the competitiveness capacity of Ha Tinh Provine” for my reseach Purposes and mission of the Thesis 2.1 Research purposes of the Thesis The purpose of the research is to complete a Doctoral Thesis in economics management contributing to provide more scientific basis for perfecting the concept of competitiveness capacity at the provincial level, identifying the constituent factors and criteria for evaluating competitiveness capacity at the provincial level; identifying impacting factors and theoretical models of factors affecting competitiveness capacity at the provincial level in order to apply a research of the competitiveness capacity situation of Ha Tinh in order to outline the retrictions and their causes in competitiveness capacity and offering some suitable and feasible solutions to enhance the competitiveness capacity of Ha Tinh in the period of 2019 - 2030 2.2 Research mission of the Thesis In order to carry out the research topic on competitiveness capacity at the provincial level, the Thesis needs to answer the following three main research questions: (1) Provincial competitiveness capacity, constituent elements and criteria for evaluating it? (2) Factors affecting the status of Ha Tinh's competitiveness capacity? (3) Solutions to enhance the competitiveness capacity of Ha Tinh in the period of 2019 - 2030? To answer three questions of above research, the Thesis needs to carry out four following research missions: Mission 1: Overview research of competitiveness capacity at the provincial level at domestic and internationally; outlining research gaps related to competitiveness capacity at the provincial level Mission 2: Proposing the concept of competitiveness capacity at the provincial level; identifying the constituent elements and criteria for evaluating competitiveness capacity at the provincial level; identifying impacting factors and proposing theoretical models of factors affecting competitiveness capacity at the provincial level; overviewing the experience to enhance the competitiveness capacity of some provinces and give out some lessons learned for the government of Ha Tinh province in the following period Mission 3: Applying theoretical models of factors affecting the provincial competitiveness capacity to analyze and assess the current situation of Ha Tinh province’s competitiveness capacity; bring out retrictions and their causes in Ha Tinh province’s competitiveness capacity in the period of 2012 - 2017, extending for consideration to 2018 Mission 4: Overviewing domestic and international contexts; offering a number of perspectives, orientations and goals in order to enhance the provincial competitiveness capacity in the period of 2019 - 2030; Proposing a number of suitable and feasible solutions to overcome constraints of Ha Tinh's competitiveness capacity in order to enhance the Ha Tinh's competitiveness capacity in the period of 2019 - 2030 Researh object and scope of the Thesis - Research object is Ha Tinh’s competitiveness capacity at the provincial level - Research scope in terms of content: Although there are many actors contributing to create competitiveness capacity at the provincial level such as provincial governments, businesses, households, population communities, economic organizations such as cooperatives, cooperative groups, investment funds, etc but within the framework of the Thesis and from the perspective of economic management, the Thesis only investigates the competitiveness capacity of economic management subject which is the provincial government With that approach, the competitiveness capacity of the provincial government is considered the competitiveness capacity at the provincial level in the province The Thesis does not make a research on competitiveness capacity at the national and enterprise levels; it only makes a research on the competitiveness capacity at the provincial level; on the components of competitiveness capacity at the provincial level, factors affecting competitiveness capacity at the provincial level and theoretical models of factors affecting competitiveness capacity at the provincial level - Research scope in terms of time: The project will focus on the Ha Tinh’s competitiveness capacity in the period of 2012 - 2017; the data used for the research which was mainly used in the period of 2012 - 2017, it also selects and supplements the data of 2018 - Research scope in terms of space: The Thesis defines the scope of the research space is in Ha Tinh province in the comparison with some other provinces in the North Central region and the Central Coast region of Vietnam Methodology and research methods of the Thesis To carry out the research project, the Thesis has applied the methodology of dialectical materialism and historical materialism; At the same time, the Thesis also uses a combination of methods that are popular in research such as the objectivity method of consideration, logic - history, from abstract to specific, history - specific, analysis, synthesis, comparison, logic, SWOT, document collection methods, etc New scientific contribution of the Thesis From the perspective of economic management, the Thesis introduces the concept of competitiveness capacity at the provincial level, a number of factors that constitute competitiveness capacity at the provincial level and criteria for evaluating competitiveness capacity at the provincial level The ways to approach the research of the concept of competitiveness capacity at the provincial level, the factors that constitute competitiveness capacity at the provincial level are always associated with the economic management subject creating competitiveness capacity which is the provincial government This is a completely new research approach compared to previously published ones The Thesis proposes a theoretical model of factors affecting competitiveness capacity at the provincial level which is highly applicable to analyze factors affecting competitiveness capacity at the provincial level of Vietnam, which hasn’t been mentioned in previous researches Theoretical and practical meanings of the Thesis 6.1 In terms of the theory From the perspective of economic management, the Thesis outlines the concept of competitiveness capacity at the provincial level, constituent elements and criteria for evaluating competitiveness capacity at the provincial level, factors affecting competitiveness capacity at the provincial level; proposing a theoretical model of factors affecting competitiveness capacity at the provincial level, the thesis wants to make a small contribution to building a complete theoretical model of competitiveness capacity at the provincial level and enhancing competitiveness capacity at the provincial level in Vietnam 6.2 In terms of practice In the research scope of the content, the Thesis identifies the economic management subject creating competitiveness capacity at the provincial level is the provincial government; therefore the competitiveness capacity of the provincial government is considered the competitiveness capacity at the provincial level; outlining the components and criteria for evaluating competitiveness capacity at the provincial level; identifing factors affecting competitiveness capacity and appling theoretical models of factors affecting competitiveness capacity at the provincial level built by the Thesis to assess the current situation of Ha Tinh’s competitiveness capacity in the period of 2012 - 2017; pointing out the retrictions and their causes on Ha Tinh's competitiveness capacity; proposing a number of suitable and feasible solutions to enahnce the competitiveness of Ha Tinh in order to develop the province's socio-economic development effectively and sustainably in the period of 2019 - 2030 Structure of the Thesis Apart from the introduction, conclusion, list of published scientific works, list of references and appendixes, the Thesis is divided into chapters: Chapter 1: Overview of research works related to the thesis topic Chapter 2: Theoretical and practical basis for competitiveness capacity at the provincial level Chapter 3: Current situation of competitiveness capacity of Ha Tinh province Chapter 4: Perspectives, orientations and solutions to enhance the competitiveness capacity of Ha Tinh province in the period of 2019 - 2030 Chapter OVERVIEW OF RESEARCH WORKS RELATED TO THE THESIS TOPIC 1.1 Researches about comparision advantage and competitiveness of competitiveness capacity and local competitiveness capacity 1.1.1 Researches about comparision advantage and competitiveness Perspectives on comparison advantage and competitiveness have appreared since the 17th century, but only in the late 18th century did they flourish, associated with the names of some economists such as A Smith, D Ricardo, J S Mill, T Malthus, K Marx, etc A Smith was a British classical economist, one of the first scholars to raise views on comparison advantage and competitiveness In his famous work, "An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of Wealth of Nations" (1776), he argued that absolutely comparison advantage meaning that a country was a producer with the lowest cost on that commodity Since then, he asserted absolute comparison advantage when being put into the economic cycle would become a competitive resource to create national competitiveness capacity D Ricardo was A Smith's outstanding successor as he pointed out the comparison advantage in countries with open economies that also became an important competitive resource to create national competitiveness when it was put into economic cycles through foreign trade activities with other countries around the world He supposed that relative comparison advantage should be transformed into each nation's competitive resources in the process of international trade After A Smith and D Ricardo, there were many economists researching the comparison advantage as an important competitiveness source creating the competitiveness of each nation and its localities, in which there was a theory on comparison advantage based on the H - O model, the theory of P Samuelson The author of the thesis acquired the above-mentioned points of view and classic theoretical methods to in-depth study on the mechanism of transforming comparison advantage into competitiveness resources from the perspective of economic management in his research project 1.1.2 Researches on national competitiveness capacity and local competitiveness capacity According to the World Economics Forum (WEF) (1995), National competitiveness capacity is the capacity of national economy to achieve and maintain the high growth in economy, income and employment In addition, WEF also supposes the national competitiveness capacity as a system of institutions, policies and determinants to a country's productivity level, etc In other words, many economies competing to others tend to produce higher levels of income for the people of their countries, etc According to the concept of M Porter (1990), “we have defined the international success of an industry in a country is to possess a competitiveness advantage relatively compared to the world's strongest competitors” Competitiveness and competitiveness capacity not only take place on a national scope, but it also clearly takes place on the local scope of all countries In their works, the authors all assert that competitiveness is inevitable and enhancing competitiveness capacity is a vital requirement of each economic subject in a market economy P Giaccaria's research “Learning and local competitiveness: the case of Turin” (1999) showed that the competitiveness advantage of localities, provinces and cities and explained the manifestations of the competitiveness advantage of localities, provinces and cities which had a strong impact on the structure and direction of socio-economic development of the Turin Author Ming Zang (2010) pointed out that the competitiveness capacity of provinces and cities with the combination of the quality of administration management, policies, laws, institutions as well as contextual factors of localities (geographical location, natural resources) and market conditions (infrastructure, human resources, economic structure) would affect the level of economic development and the potentiality of sustainable development of a province or city, etc In recent years, there have been many reseaches on provincial competitiveness capaity in Vietnam, including the provincial competitiveness index (PCI) of VCCI; indices such as PAPI, PAR Index and SIPAS and ICT are also relatively accurate indicators evaluating the Vietnam's competitiveness capacity In addition to the indicators, many practical reseaches on competitiveness capacity at the provincial level in general have been published It is the publication: "Enhancing the competitiveness capacity at the provincial level in the condition of economic market oriented by the Socialist of Vietnam today" by Nguyen Thi Thu Ha "(2009), doctoral thesis "Research to enhance the Provincial Competitiveness Index (PCI) of Hai Duong province ”by Phan Nhat Thanh (2011); doctoral thesis "Solutions to enhance competitiveness capacity to attract investment in Hung Yen province" by Do Minh Tri (2015); doctoral thesis "Enhancing Hanoi's competitiveness capacity in attracting investment for trading development in the current period" by Pham Xuan Tien (2016), etc Direct researches on above competitiveness capacity at the provincial level are a direct useful material source for further studies on related issues, etc It can be seen that the above studies of the theoretists about Vietnam’s competitiveness capacity also provide a viewpoint, approach and research method, useful scientific data for the thesis author to indepth reseach about the mechanism of transforming competitiveness advantage into competiveness capacity at the provincial level in the perspective of economic management for my research 1.2 Theoretical basis of the concept of competitiveness capacity at the provincial level in the thesis 1.2.1 Theory on transforming comparision advantage into competitiveness resources A Smith with the theory of absolute comparison advantage, D Ricardo with the theory of relative comparison advantage, the theory of comparison advantage of the H - O model and P Samuelson's theory of comparison advantage, etc in addition to the analysis of benefits the comparison advantage, they also offered a view to transforming comparison advantage into competitiveness resources of countries, regions and enterprises, etc 1.2.2 The theory of transforming competitiveness resoures and capacity into competitiveness advantage 1.2.2.1 The transformation of competitiveness resources into competitiveness advantage Enterprises into their competitiveness advantages are a decisive factor to the 11 competitiveness from different sciences, it will make a difference when determining the factors that constitute the provincial competitiveness Chapter THEORETICAL AND PRACTICAL BASIS ON COMPETITIVENESS CAPACITY AT THE PROVINCIAL LEVEL 2.1 The concept of competitiveness capacity at the provincial level 2.1.1 Theoretial basis of the concept of competitiveness capacity at the provincial level 2.1.1.1 The theory of transforming competitiveness advantage into competitiveness resources The theory of relative competitiveness advantage and the absolute competitiveness advantage all assert that the comparison advantage should be transformed into the competitiveness resources of competitor subjects in the market and this is an inevitable transformation 2.1.1.2 The theory of transforming the competitiveness resources and capacity into competitiveness advantage The theory of resources supposes that the competitiveness resources of enterprises are the decisive factors for the transformation into the competitiveness advantage and business performance of enterprises This theory has divided competitiveness resources into three types: physical resources, human resources and organizational resources, etc Ownership resources are the fundamental basis for building a business strategy based on valuable, rare, inimitable, nonsubstitutable attributes To successfully transform competitiveness resources into competitiveness advantage of enterprises must satisfy the above attributes The theory supposes that enterprises need to know how to combine and recombine competitiveness resources to transform them into competitiveness advantage and then transform competitiveness advantage into enterprises’ competitiveness capacity in order to overtake competitors in the industry The theory about the capacity states that enterprises 'capabilities are shown in their abilities in using, combining assets, resources, and capabilities to achieve the organization's overall efficiency and growth The concept of capaity is the assumption that, the research object environment, especially the enterprise environment, is dynamic and therefore, it is required to build capacity and continuously make full use of the capacity to transform them into competitiveness advantage Capacity is 12 understood as the ability to maintain, deploy, coordinate resources and use resources to help businesses achieve their goals in competitive contexts to transform them into competitiveness advantage for enterprises Therefore, enterprises which want to transform their capacities into competitiveness advantages, and transform competitiveness advantage into competitiveness capacity, need to know how to combine resources and capabilities 2.1.1.3 The theory of transforming competitiveness advantage into competitiveness capacity M Porter (1985, 1998) was one of the authors discussing a lot about the theory of transforming competitiveness advantage into competitiveness capacity, when he supposed that competitiveness capacity was to be able to compete successfully, enterprises must have competitiveness advantage in the form of either lower production costs, or the ability to differentiate products to achieve the price which were higher than average M Porter pointed out that, competitiveness advantage on costs, or relative prices among enterprises were important prerequisites for creating competitiveness advantage for enterprises Essentially, the transformation of competitiveness advantage into competitiveness capacity was the process of creating higher labor productivity than compared to other competitors in the market The theory of transforming competitiveness advantage into competitiveness capacity was also clearly expressed in the works of scholars such as R Feurer, K Chaharbaghi, A Ambastha, K Momaya, etc 2.1.2 Proposing the concept of competitiveness capacity at the provincial level in the thesis 2.1.2.1 Identifying the subject creating competitiveness capacity at the provincial level On researching the competitiveness capacity at the provincial level, it is necessary to clearly identify the main subject creating the competitiveness capacity at the provincial level There are many entities competing and contributing to the competitiveness capacity at the provincial level such as government, enterprises, households, and other economic owners such as cooperatives, cooperative groups, investment funds, etc However, due to the retrictions in the scope of the research content, the thesis identifies the subject creating competitiveness capacity at the provincial level is the provincial government, because this subject acts as the economic management one in the province Thus, within the content scope of the 13 thesis, the competitiveness capacity at the provincial level is the competitiveness capacity of the provincial government 2.1.2.2 Expressing the concept of provincial competitiveness capacity at the provincial level and explaining the terms From the theory of the transformation of competititveness advantage into competitiveness capacity and the transformation of resources and capacity into competititveness advantage, from the perspective of economic management, the thesis expresses the concept of competitiveness capacity of the provincial government as follows: competitiveness capacity of provincial authority is the capacity to exploit, attract and transform resources in the form of potentiality into the province's competititveness advantage and the ability to effectively use competititveness advantage to overtake other provinces in socio-economic development activities From the viewpoint of economic management, in the sense of the verb, the “Enhancing” term in the phrase "Enhancing competitiveness capacity at the provincial level" is understood as the operation of the provincial government, making the province's competititveness capacity better and more highly effective; It is also the process of making elements constituing competititveness capacity of that subject more effective and more perfect 2.2 Components of competitiveness capacity at provincial level Provincial competitiveness capacity includes: (1) The provincial government's capacity to exploit, attract and use high-qualified human resources; (2) The provincial government's capacity to exploit, attract and use financial investment resources and modern technology; (3) The cooperation and connection capacity of the provincial government; (4) The provincial government's capacity to respond to incidents and events; (5) The provincial government’s creativeness and innovation capacity; (6) The provincial government’s management and operation capacity 2.3 Criteria for evaluating competitiveness capacity at provincial level in thesis Criteria for evaluating acute competitiveness capacity include (1) Ability to develop high quality human resources; (2) Ability to mobilize financial resources; (3) Ability to connect and cooperate; (4) Ability to predict and handle situations, incidents, events and disasters; (5) Ability to innovate and create; (6) Ability to maintain and enhance management and 14 operation efficiency Each criteria has a number of component evaluation indicators, assessing the status of competitiveness capacity in the thesis will only focus on analyizing the component criteria of the above criteria 2.4 Factors affecting competitiveness capacity at the provincial level and proposing theoretical models measuring factors affecting competitiveness capacity at the provincial level in the thesis 2.4.1 Factors affecting competitiveness capacity at the provincial level Factors influencing competitiveness capacity at the provincial level include: (1) Business environment; (2) Level of development of the industry cluster; (3) Operation and strategies of the enterprises; (4) Social, health, educational and cultural infrastructure; (5) Technical infrastructure (transportation, electricity, water, telecommunications); (6) Fiscal policy, investment, credit and economic structure; (7) Physical location; (8) Natural resources; (9) Scale of the province (GDP, area, population, domestic market, etc.) 2.4.2 Theoretical model measursing factors competitiveness capacity at the provincial level in the thesis affecting 2.4.2.1 Theoretical basis of proposing theoretical model measuring the factors affecting competitiveness capacity at the provincial level in the thesis (1) Analysis framework of competitiveness capacity at the local level of Vu Thanh Tu Anh: According to Vu Thanh Tu Anh, the analysis framework of competitiveness capacity at the local level is divided into parts in interdependent, binding and interactive relationship inclusing: The first is the "Existing factors of the locality" including geographic location, natural resources and local scale The second is "competitiveness capacity at the local level" including social, health, educational and cultural infrastructure (transportation, electricity, water, telecommunications); fiscal policy, investment, credit, economic structure The third is "competitiveness capacity at the enterprise level" including the business environment, induinry cluster development level, operations and strategies of enterprises (2) Diamond model of M Porter: including: One is the conditions, existing input factors; second is the company's structural strategies and competitiveness; three is demand conditions; four is related and supporting industries Triangle Model about competitiveness capacity of Lall, Abramovitz and his partners including competitiveness capacity in knowledge, competitiveness capacity in economy and competitiveness (3) 15 capacity in institution If combining to analyze these three types of capacities in a whole which was systematic and according to a linear logical manner, it would form an effectively analytical model of competitiveness capacity with the name of competitiveness capacity Triangle 2.4.2.2 Proposing a theoretical model measuring the factors affecting the provincial competitiveness capacity From the three theoretical bases mentioned above, the thesis proposes a theoretical model of factors affecting competitiveness capacity at the provincial level including factors as follows: (1) Business environment; (2) Development level of the industry cluster; (3) Business strategic operations; (4) Social infrastructure (health, education, culture, society); (5) Technical infrastructure (transportation, electricity, water, telecommunications); (6) Economic structure, investment, credit and fiscal policies; (7) Geographical location; (8) Natural resources; (9) Local scale Business environment Social, health, educational and cultural infrastructure T4 Technical infrastructure (transportation, electricity, water, telecommunications) Economic structure, investment, credit and fiscal policies Local scale T1 Development level of the industry cluster T2 Enterprise’s strategy and operations T3 T5 T6 T9 Competiti veness capacity at proivincial level Geographical location T7 Natural resources T8 Source: Author Figure 2.2: Modeling of hypotheses which are factors affecting the province’s competitiveness capaity Y= f(X1, X2, X3, X4, X5, X6, X7, X8, X9) In which: X1: Business environment factors; X2: Industry cluster development factor; X3: Strategy and operation factors of enterprises; X4: Factor 16 in social, health, educational and cultural infrastructure; X5: Technical infrastructure factors (transportation, electricity, water, telecommunications); X6: Economic structure, credit, investment and fiscal policy factor; X7: Geographic location factor; X8: Natural resources factor; X9: The factor of local scale (in terms of area, GDP, population, domestic market, industrial clusters, etc.); Y: the provincial competitiveness capacity Assumptions of the model: T1: There is a positive impact of the business environment on the provincial competitiveness capacity; T2: There is a positive impact of the development of the industry cluster on the provincial competitiveness capacity; T3: There is a positive impact of the enterprise’s strategy and operation on the provincial competitiveness capacity; T4: There is a positive impact of social infrastructure on the provincial competitiveness capacity; T5: There is a positive impact of technical infrastructure on provincial competitiveness capacity; T6: There is a positive impact of economic policies of the Central Government and the province on the provincial competitiveness capacity; T7: There is a positive impact of geographic location on the provincial competitiveness capacity; T8: There is a positive impact of natural resources on the provincial competitiveness capacity; T9: There is a positive impact of the local scale on the provincial competitiveness capacity 2.5 Experiences in improving competitiveness capacity of some provinces in Vietnam and lessons learned for Ha Tinh province 2.5.1 Experience to improve competitiveness capacity of Danang and Quang Ninh: Experiences to improve competitiveness capacity of Danang and Quang Ninh includes: (1) Experiences in exploiting local resources for development; (2) Experiences in associating and cooperating with domestic and foreign partners; (3) Experiences of capacity, effective operation management of government 2.5.2 Lesson learned to improve competitiveness capacity for Ha Tinh Lessons learned to enhance competitiveness capacity for Ha Tinh province include: (1) Lessons on improving the governance efficiency of the government; (2) Lessons on well exploiting local resources for development Chapter CURRENT SITUATION OF COMPETITIVENESS CAPACITY OF HA TINH PROVINCE 3.1 Natural and socio-economic characteristics 17 From the analysis of natural conditions, socio-economic characteristics and resources, it can be seen that Ha Tinh is eligible to improve competitiveness capacity to overcome your neighbors to develop socio-economic of the province and it deserves a position as an and logistics service, industrial center of the North Central region and Central coastal region However, Ha Tinh has not exploited all its inherent potentials and strengths to develop into a trading center of the North Central region, it hasn’t had the international and regional internal connection and cooperation, and economic growth is still slow and it is still a poor province, etc 3.2 Current situation of provincial competitiveness capacity of Ha Tinh 3.2.1 Current situation of the capacity of exploiting, attracting and using high quality human resources of the government of Ha Tinh province Current situation of the capacity of exploiting, attracting and using high-qualified human resources of the government of Ha Tinh province is assessed through the indicators of ability to attract talents, the HDI, the results of building and improving the quality of the contingent of cadres, civil servants and officials Currently, the percentage of high school graduated students is 74.3%, significantly higher than the national average, etc In 2017, in the total of the labor force who are working and contributing to the economy, there is 58.7% trained, increased up to 23.2% compared to the percentrage of 2011, etc 3.2.2 Current situation of the capacity to exploit, attract and use financial investment resources and modern technology of the government of Ha Tinh province The current situation of this capacity is assessed according to the indicators of social investment capital in the form of ownership, indicators of investment capital for all sectors, and Incremental Capital Output Ratio (ICOR), targets on attracting FDI capital, targets on attracting high-tech projects, targets on electronic governance, targets on enterprise development, targets on enterprise support services In the period of 2012 - 2015, the number of the realized investment capital of the following timeline compared to the previous one has increased significantly by 257.36%, of which the outstanding growth in FDI capital of the following timeline in comparison with the previous time period was 332.76% In the period of 2015 - 2017, the number of 18 the realized investment capital of the following timeline compared to the previous one has decreased significantly by 34.36%, of which the decrease in the FDI capital of the following timeline compared to previous milestone was 19.95% In the period of 2016 -2017, "Development index of newly established enterprises in 2017/2016" in the Central Coast region was 118.4% Comparing to the regional average, Ha Tinh is the province with the lower rate than the average number which was 17.4%, etc Table 3.3: Growth index of newly established enterprises of North Central and Central coastal areas compared to the whole country in the period of 2016-2017 Number of Number of Growth Region newly newly index of established established newly enterprises enterprises established in 2016 in 2017 enterprises 2017/2016 (%) Whole country 110.100 126.859 115,2 North Central and 14.825 17556 118,4 Central coastal areas Thanh Hoa 1.453 3.065 210,9 Nghe An 1.547 1.794 116 Ha Tinh 734 741 101 Quang Binh 564 576 102,1 Quang Tri 282 307 108,9 TT- Hue 672 640 95,2 Source: Vietnam Statistical Yearbook 2016, 2017 3.2.3 Current situation of connection and cooperation capacity of the authorities of Ha Tinh province Current situation of the connection and cooperation capacity of the authorities of Ha Tinh province is assessed through indicators of trade promotion, indicators of market share expansion for local products, indicators of investment promotion capacity, indicators of public - private cooperation capacity, indicators of the number of projects of regional and international cooperation and connection 19 In fact, Ha Tinh province does not have a joint project with provinces in the Central Coast area The number of public-private partnership projects is very small The ability of trade promotion and investment promotion has made certain progress, promoting market share expansion for local products have prospered, etc 3.2.4 Current situation of capacity to adapt to incidents and events of the authorities of Ha Tinh province Current situation of capacity to adapt to incidents and events of the authorities of Ha Tinh province is assessed through indicators of the ability to predict incidents, unexpected situations, indicators of handling situations and environmental incidents, natural disasters The authorities of Ha Tinh province have not really paid attention to the implementation of the motto "Four in place" and the motto "Three ready things" in dealing with incidents and unexpected incidents, especially environmental incidents and natural disasters Therefore, when the Formosa environmental incident happened, the authorities of Ha Tinh province were very awkward and passive, etc 3.2.5 Current situation of creativity and innovation capacity of the authorities of Ha Tinh province Current situation of capacity to creativity and innovation capacity of the authorities of Ha Tinh province is assessed through the indicators of the number of established Technology and Science enterprises, the targets on developing the Technology and Science market, the indicators of dynamism and pioneering of provincial leaders, indicators of modernization and administrative reform, indicators of Information Technology infrastructure and Information Technology applications in governance In the period of 2012 - 2017, the authorities of Ha Tinh province were quite interested in Technology and Science activities with 126 equipment and technology transfer contracts implemented with a total value of 821,130 million VND According to data in the Statistical Yearbook of some North Central provinces in 2012 and 2015, it shows that Ha Tinh’s increase number of Technology and Science enterprises and training places is 136.92%; Nghe An’s is 183.38%; Quang Binh’s is 119%; Quang Tri’s is 204.68% 20 3.2.6 Current situation operation and management capacity of the authorities of Ha Tinh province 3.2.6.1 Current situation of serving and construction capacity of the authorities of Ha Tinh province The current situation of the serving and construction capacity of the provincial government is assessed through the indicators of serving and construction capacity of the provincial government (including publicity, transparency, legal institutions and order and security, time costs, informal charges) PAPI data show that this index of Ha Tinh in 2012, 2015 and 2018 shows that: In 2012, in the Central Coast region (12 provinces), Ha Tinh reached 5.86 points ranking 6th place; in 2015, it increased by 3rd place and then decrease by 9th (2018); This shows that Ha Tinh does not have any stability on this indicator 3.2.6.2 Situation of capacity of policy making and organizing policy implementation of the authorities of Ha Tinh province Capacity of making policies and organizing the policy implementation is assessed through indicators of capacity of policy making and organizing policy implementation (including government accountability, public administrative procedures) Currently, most of the provinces in the North Central region have issued policies to shift the economy structure in the direction of focusing on developing the tourism industry to turn tourism into a main and key economic sector of the province In fact, although the number of tourists to Ha Tinh is 1.06 times higher and the tourist revenue of accommodation places is 3.48 times higher than that of Quang Binh, but the number of international tourists to Quang Binh is approximately 3.8 times higher than that of Ha Tinh 3.2.6.3 Current situation of the capacity of inspection, supervision, expertise and evaluation of the authorities of Ha Tinh province Current situation of inspection, supervision, expertise and evaluation capacity of the authorities of Ha Tinh province is assessed through indicators of inspection, supervision, expertise and evaluation capacity of the authorities of Ha Tinh province (including controlling corruption in the public sector, building and 21 organizing the implementation of legal documents) Results of the evaluation of the indicators "Controlling corruption in the public sector" in the Central Coast region (12 provinces) over time points of 2012, 2015 and 2018 show that Ha Tinh has no stability in terms of rank, because when it ranked the 9th place (2012), it increased by the 2nd place (2015), but then decreased by 7th place (2018) 3.3 Some retrictions and causes of the competitiveness capacity of the authorities of Ha Tinh province (1) Retrictions and their causes on the capacity to exploit, attract and use high-qualified human resources of the authorities of Ha Tinh province; (2) Restrictions and their causes on the capacity to exploit, attract and use modern technological and financial investments of the authorities of Ha Tinh province; (3) Retrictions and their causes on the cooperation and connetion capacity of the authorities in Ha Tinh province; (4) Retrictions and their causes on the capacity to respond to incidents and events of the authorities of Ha Tinh province; (5) Retrictions and their causes on creativity and innovation capacity of the authorities of Ha Tinh province; (6) Retrictions and their causes on operation and management capacity of the authorities of Ha Tinh province Chapter VIEWPOINTS, ORIENTATIONS AND SOLUTIONS TO ENHANCE THE COMPETITIVENESS CAPACITY OF HA TINH PROVINCE IN THE PERIOD 2019-2030 4.1 International and domestic contexts affect the competitiveness of Ha Tinh province in the period 2019 - 2030 (1) Domestic context affects competitiveness capacity of Ha Tinh province; (2) International context affects competitiveness capacity of Ha Tinh province 4.2 Viewpoints and orientations on enhancing the competitiveness capacity of Ha Tinh province in the period 2019 - 2030 4.2.1 Viewpoints on enhancing the competitiveness capacity of Ha Tinh province in the period 2019 - 2030 First, the authorities of Ha Tinh province need to strengthen its ability 22 to transform existing advantages into competitiveness advantage and create new incentives for socio-economic development Secondly, the authorities of Ha Tinh province need to connect its role of economic management with the activity of increasing endogenous capacity of Ha Tinh’s economy Thirdly, the authorities of Ha Tinh province need to implement synchronously and creatively the economic policies of the Central Government into the specific circumstances Fourthly, the authorities of Ha Tinh province need to associate economic development with human development and cultural infrastructure development, and improving the life quality of their people 4.2.2 Orientations on enhancing the competitiveness capacity of Ha Tinh province in the period 2019 - 2030 First is to enhance the provincial government's ability to attract and use high quality human resources Secondly, is to enhance the capacity of the provincial government to exploit, attract and use modern technological and financial investment resources Thirdly, is to enhance the cooperation and connection capacity of the provincial government Fourthly, is to enhance the capacity to adapt to incidents and events of the provincial government Fifthly, is to enhance the creativity and innovation capacity of the authorities of Ha Tinh province Sixthly, is to enhance the operation and management capacity of the provincial government Seventhly, is to enhance the quality of spiritual and material life for the people in Ha Tinh; maintain stable political situation, ensure order and security, safety and social security in the province 4.3 Some objectives need to be done to improve the competitiveness capacity of Ha Tinh Objectives to be achieved to enhance competitiveness capacity of Ha Tinh province include economic restructuring, environmental and social economic 4.4 Some solutions to enhance the competitiveness capacity of Ha Tinh province in the period 2019 - 2030 4.4.1 Attracting talents and high-qualified human resources The authorities of Ha Tinh province need to attract talents to work and 23 keep them to work for long-term to meet the requirements of international integration At the same time, Ha Tinh province needs to proactively train high-qualified human resources in provine to meet the requirements of transforming the economy into digital convergence in the future 4.4.2 Focus on developing high-tech agriculture towards green agriculture Ha Tinh should proactively invite for investment in high-tech agriculture in the direction of green agriculture to develop endemic agricultural products with high market value and competitiveness capacity in the field of agriculture 4.4.3 Promote public-private connection and cooperation, multilateral cooperation to enhance the endogenous capacity of the economy of Ha Tinh Ha Tinh needs to promote the development of a Public - Private Partnership model (PPP), especially in infrastructure development, in agriculture and in environmental proesss In addition, Ha Tinh needs to strengthen and multilateral connection and cooperation between provinces in the Central Coast region and international cooperation to enhance the endogenous capacity of Ha Tinh’s economy in the following time 4.4.4 Completing the work of predicting and building hypothetical situations, incidents and events Predicting and building hypothetical events, incidents and situations play an important role in effective and timely handling and adaptation when they occur in reality; thereby helping to enhane competitiveness capacity of Ha Tinh 4.4.5 Create an ecological environment to develop innovation and creativity The creativity and innovation capacity of the authorities of Ha Tinh province is only enhanced, when it is nurtured in an appropriate ecological environment Creating an ecological environment for the development and enhancing the creativity and innovation capacity of the provincial government will help to develop the province's creativity and innovation activities 4.4.6 Enhancing the serving and construction capacity of the authorities of Ha Tinh province Enhancing the serving and construction capacity of the provincial 24 government is essentially raising the duties and responsibilities of the public authority system to establish, create the most favorable conditions and serve the most effectively for the production operation business and investment of enterprises, economic organizations; help increase labor productivity, ensure the lives of people in the province to promote the development of the province CONCLUSION Improving competitiveness capacity in the process of deeper and deeper international integration is a vital task of Ha Tinh province in particular and of Vietnam in general Competitiveness capacity is an important theoretical issue that has been researched by many domestic and international scholars Based on the theoretical framework, the thesis has introduced the concept of competitiveness capacity at the provincial level, identifying the subjects of economic management creating the competitiveness capacity at the provincial level, identifying the system of factors forming the competitiveness capacity at the provincial level; criteria for evaluating competitiveness capacity at the provincial level; identifying factors that affect provincial competitiveness capacity at the provincial level and propose a theoretical model to measure the factors affecting competitiveness capacity at the provincial level The thesis applied a theoretical model to measure the factors affecting the competitiveness capacity at the provincial level, it has been developed by the thesis to analyze the reality of the province's competitiveness capacity in a case study of Ha Tinh through criteria which has been built by the thesis to find out achievements to enhance competitiveness capacity, retrictions and their causes on competitiveness capacity of Ha Tinh province in the period of 2012 2017, with expansion to 2018 Based on the analysis of domestic and international contexts, based on lessons to enhance the competitiveness capacity of some localities and their retrictions and causes; Based on the perspectives, orientations and objectives of enhancing province's competitiveness capacity in Ha Tinh province, the thesis has proposed solutions to enhance the competitiveness capacity of the authorities of Ha Tinh province in the period of 2019 - 2030 to make Ha Tinh become a rich and prosperous province LIST OF WORKS PUBLISHED RELATED TO THE THESIS TOPIC [1] Nong Minh Trang (2019), “The model of competitiveness triangle in the research of competitiveness capacity at the provincial level”, Pacific - Asia Economic Magazine, No 536/2019, pages 40-42 [2] Nong Minh Trang (2019), “Analyze business environment of Ha Tinh through indicators”, Pacific - Asia Economic Magazine, No 537/2019, pages 31-33 [3] Nong Minh Trang (2015), “Green Bond and its outlook in Vietnam”, Theoretical Activities Magazine, No 5/2015, pages 32-33-3435-36-81