HÀ NỘI — The Ministry of Agriculture and Environment in collaboration with Institute of Strategy, Policy on Natural Resources and Environmennt (ISPONRE) opened a workshop on reviewing the results of developing Provincial Competitiveness and Governance Index (PCGI) for cooperatives in the agriculture in Hà Nội on November 27.  

The event organised by the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment in collaboration with Institute of Strategy, Policy on Natural Resources and Environmennt (ISPONRE), gathered more than 200 participants from state agencies, international organisations, experts and representatives of cooperatives nationwide.

In his opening remarks, Lê Đức Thịnh, director of the Department of Cooperative Economics and Rural Development, said the PCGI aims to create a specialised tool to monitor and evaluate the business environment for the agricultural collective economy, where most members are farmers and therefore highly vulnerable to market volatility and natural disasters.

The PCGI consists of nine component groups with 48 indicators, covering two major dimensions, internal capacity of cooperatives and external support environment.

Internal capacity of cooperatives include organisational structure, finance, governance, markets, and innovation capacity.

External support environment include institutional quality, infrastructure, public services, support policies, and the management capacity of local authorities.

According to the ISPONRE, the indicators were piloted in seven provinces representing seven ecological regions, helping refine the framework, measurement methodology, and data collection process. The pilot confirmed the feasibility of deploying PCGI nationwide.

The participants agreed that unlike enterprises, the agricultural cooperatives operate with the goal of enhancing members’ benefits, providing public services, and building sustainable livelihoods. Therefore, a transparent and supportive business environment plays a decisive role in cooperative development.

"Building a favourable business environment for cooperatives is a measure of the level of attention local authorities give to the collective economic sector. Development of the cooperatives will remain difficult if the business environment still contains barriers,” Thịnh said.

Therefore, PCGI is expected to enable each locality to clearly identify its strengths and weaknesses in managing and supporting cooperatives. Like the Provincial Competitiveness Index (PCI), PCGI is anticipated to foster stronger reform efforts.

The workshop captured numerous constructive opinions from experts, local leaders, and cooperative representatives. These contributions reflected the realities of the cooperative operating environment and suggested refinements to indicators related to land access, credit, digital transformation, value-chain linkages, the role of support organizations, and the responsibility of local authorities.

PCGI is expected to generate substantial improvements in provincial governance quality through objective, transparent, and comparable assessments. 

The index will be cooperatives' contribution in policymaking; encourage healthy competition and learning across provinces; and provide evidence-based data for government and ministerial management agencies.

The PCGI will contribute to building a modern, transparent, effective, and sustainable agricultural cooperative system.

In the coming period, the Department of Cooperative Economics and Rural Development will continue working with ISPONRE, relevant ministries, local authorities, and cooperatives to finalise the PCGI. 

The index is expected to have assessment nationwide for the first time in 2026. VNS