At a seminar in Hanoi on January 22 to assess the quality of Vietnamese private enterprises after 10 years of implementing the Enterprise Law, the report said that the law, issued in 1999 and 2005, has created a boom in the number of such enterprises, and that they have contributed to building the national economy.

Domestic private enterprises have directly competed with foreign-invested enterprises in attracting human resources, said the report.

However, the report said that the number of major private companies that are capable of assisting the national economy remains limited.

Also, the increase in quality has not fully matched the increase in quantity. There remain weaknesses in terms of management, the implementation of environmental regulations, labour standards, corporate social responsibility and research and application of advanced technology, said the report.

The participants said that the progress of private enterprise in terms of turnover, capital and important indexes on the quality of operations is slower than that of State-owned and foreign-invested businesses.

Participants agreed that a searching assessment of the quality of the operations of such domestic enterprises is needed at this juncture, and that CIEM’s report has made a useful contribution to building new policies in this area.

However, they said, CIEM should build new criteria and analyse the impact of macro-economic policies on business activities.

Deputy CIEM Director Nguyen Dinh Cung responded that the institute plans to do just that, and draw up proposals for private enterprise development in the coming decade. CIEM will organise a major seminar for these businesses to discuss the issues, he added.