Today’s guest is Eddy Malesky, a Professor of Political Economy at Duke University who focuses on Vietnam. Eddy is also the primary author and lead researcher of the annual Provincial Competitiveness Index (PCI).

He played an instrumental role in the creation of the PCI in 2005 and remains heavily involved, offering great insight and nuance on the relationship between sub-national government actions and local business communities.

We discussed the concept of ‘fencebreaking,’ the PCI’s background and the desire to create a tool that provincial officials can use to benchmark against other locations and identify best practices, the surprising official embrace of the index, the genesis of the newer Provincial Green Index (PGI) as a tool for provinces to measure compliance with environmental and energy regulations, how the index’s results illustrate Vietnam’s economic evolution, and how it reflects the anti-corruption campaign.

Related Links:

2023 PGI-PCI Full Report

Provincial Competitiveness Index (PCI) for 2023 announced (Vietnam Plus)

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