Metodología implementado Excel para enseñanza de estadística descriptiva

This section explains why the PCI can be used to measure the extent and quality of place marketing management of Vietnamese provinces. To be an effective measure, the PCI must provide a measure of the main activities that provincial or city governments undertake to make their region more attractive to private firms and support firms’ business activities. It should not include factors that are not, at a particular stage of development, under the control of the relevant governments. It is argued here that these conditions are met, although in the future other place marketing activities might be undertaken or conditions currently not under the effective control of regional governments (such as infrastructure) might become so.

As presented in the PCI content and methodology discussion above, the PCI concentrates to measuring how good the provincial government’s activities are, in terms of making the province attractive to investors and of supporting enterprises during their operations. The PCI researchers tried to remove factors which are other than these government activities. For example, the sub-indicator of effective land wait days (Entry Cost sub-index) is determined by government efforts after supply/demand conditions are separated out (see Appendix 1). These government’s activities influence the investor’s decision of choosing location and the subsequent effectiveness of the business. In accordance with the concept of place product (Chapter 3), the ten sub-indices of PCI are considered as attributes of the place product. A province’s values on the PCI sub-index measures provide a measure of the perception and evaluation of customers (private enterprises), and how good these attributes of the place product are. These government’s activities, therefore, are considered as place marketing activities, that is, activities to create and market the place product.

The PCI, with its concentration on the effectiveness of governance, certainly overlooks some important attributes of the place product, but does so in a way that is relevant to this research objective As argued in Chapter 3, the place product includes some attributes which it is difficult for the province/city to create or to change (static attributes) or beyond the ability/authority of the province to control. To evaluate the effectiveness of provincial place marketing management, factors which are beyond the province’s control and capacity should not taken into account. The PCI does not reflect the conditions of infrastructure (including soft infrastructure such as education also), location and natural endowments. Although these factors (called initial conditions) obviously play important roles in attracting and promoting private sector development, they are not within the province’s control and capacity at the present time. The regulation of state budget revenues and expenditure, and reports of state budget allocations (e.g. Ministry of Finance 2008), show that the major resources for infrastructure have been controlled by the central government for a long period of time up to the present. These central resources are also limited because the domestic saving is small. The resources for infrastructure have recently been enhanced by overseas development aid. However, these resources are also controlled by the central government. Almost all of the provinces in Vietnam are underdeveloped, so that their own capacity for capital accumulation for infrastructure improvement is weak. Besides these factors, the central government retains

the authority to issue, and to control the application of, laws and regulations relating to the infrastructure area.

The natural position of a place is difficult to change although, to some extent, infrastructure is able to reduce the disadvantages of natural position, such as shortening distances by a speedy transport system or by advanced communications. As a consequence of difficulties of infrastructure investment, disadvantages of natural location cannot be reduced much by the provincial government. In addition, the management capacity of most provincial governments is limited. Similarly, the natural endowment is not likely to be exploited well with the lack of resources and the limitations of managerial capacity. These factors explain why, in practice, what most of the Vietnamese provincial governments use to create competitive advantages in attracting investment is improving the efficiency of provincial governance, which is measured by the PCI sub-indices. Moreover, Vietnam, as an economy in transition from a socialist system, has retained many barriers to private sector development in its managerial system and regulatory framework, as well as retaining unofficial obstacles such as attitudes or informal charges. These facts are demonstrated by the PCI survey data, the PCI documents (VNCI & VCCI) and the actual situation of many provinces analysed in the following chapters of this thesis. In the Vietnamese context, therefore, improving governance is not only a feasible form of place marketing at the current time, but also needs to be regarded as a prerequisite for more sophisticated forms of place marketing.

This analysis matches the points on the significance of the dynamic attributes of the place product made in Chapter 3. The place product consists of two attribute groups: static and dynamic. The static attributes are the hard-changeable ones, such as the initial conditions mentioned above. The dynamic ones are the more easily-changeable ones, such as the indicators of the PCI. Rationally, static advantages should be preferred by investors since they are difficult to change and hence are low risk. However, dynamic attributes can become static ones if they can prove their hard-changeable characteristics. This means that stability in the way the local government manages (in both directions, positive or negative) could bring equal or even better advantages or disadvantages than those deriving from infrastructure or natural position. Moreover, the potential of dynamic factors to create change is not limited, whereas that of static ones is restricted to some extent and partly depends on dynamic factors. The study in the next chapter on the interaction between the PCI and initial advantages in encouraging investment will verify this point. Furthermore, dynamic factors can change static

ones in due course. A good leadership which is able to mobilize investment for infrastructure improvement is one such case. A far-sighted vision could change the foundations of the education of a society, although this might take a long time. It is also worth noting that the VCCI and VNCI carried out large surveys to build up the PCI. In the view of the PCI researchers, implementers and consultants10, improvements in the PCI are a feasible solution that provincial governments are able to implement in the short-term for enhancing their competitiveness, whereas, as expressed by Malesky (2006a, p. 2), “for most cash-strapped and underdeveloped Vietnamese provinces”, improvements in infrastructure are “a long-term dream rather than a medium-term solution to their development dilemmas”.

However, it is necessary to note that, although major resources for infrastructure come from the central government, a good management of provincial place marketing (i.e. a high PCI), as suggested in the model, can motivate private resources by a good private-public cooperation and can also bring revenues for reinvesting in improving infrastructure. Improvements in infrastructure as a result of provincial efforts need to be considered as an indicator of the effectiveness of provincial governance, and this view will be adopted during the process of evaluation. In practice, a few provinces have started to invest in infrastructure from their own resources.

In the viewpoint of place marketing as well as in the Vietnamese milieu, the PCI is a relevant indicator to measure the level and quality of place marketing management across provinces. With the activity surrounding the PCI and its further influence on government behaviour, it seems that the basic principle of place marketing has started working in Vietnam. Place product sellers are under pressure to design their products toward meeting buyers’ needs and wants. These needs and wants are spelled out by the buyers, not perceived by the sellers as before.

10 _{They are both Vietnamese and foreigners. Almost all of them have worked for a long time in Vietnam in} positions which help them understand well the Vietnamese actuality (see information of the PCI project at