The Provincial Competitiveness Index (PCI) is the result of a major collaborative effort of the Vietnam Competitiveness Initiative (VNCI) and the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI).

VNCI is an economic growth project funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). VNCI is managed by Development Alternatives Inc (DAI). The Asia Foundation is the principal subcontractor to DAI and is responsible for the research and policy component of VNCI, including the design and production of the PCI.

In fact, the PCI has its origins in an ealier study by the Asia Foundation (TAF) and VCCI. This study, titled “Best Practices in Provincial Economic Governance” was undertaken in 2003-2004 and covered 14 non-metropolitan provinces. Although based upon a different methodology, the PCI used the same survey instrument as that developed for the TAF-VCCI study.

In 2005, the PCI covered 42 provinces in Vietnam, accounting in total 90% of the national GDP. The index was repeated in 2006 with the inclusion of all 64 provinces. Further to the major public releases of the PCI, VNCI-VCCI has also carried out diagnostics on individual provinces to help identify relative their relative strengths and weaknesses in promoting private sector development

VNCI and VCCI are planning to jointly produce the PCI on an annual basis. This will allow provinces to track their progress over time, not only in terms of relative rankings, but also in terms of absolute scores.