Management level of Vietnamese enterprises still low: experts

CellMech International Vina Co, Ltd, in Vinh Phuc province.(Photo: VNA)

The management level of large enterprises in Vietnam is still very low as compared to countries such as Singapore, Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, according to experts.

Hoang Quang Phong, Vice President of the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI), said Vietnam would build an independent and self-reliant economy in the context of international integration, adding the Party has properly understood and appreciated the role of businesspeople in realising the goal of building an independent and self-reliant economy, especially in the current context of deep integration.

Phong said such efforts helped the team of entrepreneurs and businesses to grow. By the end of 2021, Vietnam had nearly 860,000 enterprises in operation, about 15,300 non-agricultural cooperatives and about 5.1 million business households.

He announced six local entrepreneurs had entered the top "dollar billionaires" globally in 2021 and 124 businesses with 283 products that are national brands, saying some brands resonate and affirm their brand value in regional and international markets such as Viettel, Vinamilk, VinFast, Thaco, TH True Milk and ST25 rice.

From another angle, he said business development still faced many difficulties and has not met expectations as the number of enterprises was unlikely to reach the set target of 1.5 million enterprises by 2025 while the quality of enterprises in value chains and global production networks were still limited, and have not yet taken full advantage of the opportunities brought by FTAs.

There are still some businesspeople who violate ethics, traditional culture and even the law, he told a seminar held by VCCI on September 27 aimed to improve competitiveness for the business community to develop and grow the local economy.

It is necessary to build a team of Vietnamese entrepreneurs who are not only talented but also have business ethics and culture, thus contributing to making Vietnam a developing country with modern industry and high average income by 2030; and a high-income developed country by 2045 as said in the Resolution of the 13th National Party Congress.

Deputy Director of the Department of Enterprise Development, Ministry of Planning and Investment Bui Thu Thuy told the seminar: “There are about 878,600 enterprises operating in the whole country; of which 97.2% are small and medium sized.”
She added despite being ranked as a large enterprise, the average size of large enterprises in the private sector in Vietnam was also much smaller than the average in other countries in the ASEAN region.

At the same time, Vietnam’s stock market is home to the largest concentration of private enterprises with a large number of listed companies compared to other stock exchanges in the region, said Thuy.

According to newly updated data, although Vietnam’s stock market has a good growth rate, the average capitalisation of enterprises listed on the two exchanges in Hanoi and HCM City was still far behind other countries in the region.
Compared to countries such as Singapore, the Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Thailand, the governance level of Vietnam’s large enterprises was still very low, only half of that of countries with high corporate governance scores.

This may partly explain the ability of large enterprises to grow and reach the regional and world level in these countries, which is still much higher than that of large enterprises in Vietnam.

According to the assessment, Vietnamese enterprises still have many limitations in risk management issues; information disclosure and transparency; activities of the Board of Directors and the Supervisory Board. Not to mention, good corporate governance practices in recent times have added to the assessment of environmental protection policies in the practice of production and business activities of enterprises. This is a very new criterion for most Vietnamese businesses.

Le Xuan Sang, Deputy Director of the Vietnam Institute of Economics, said that in the process of building an independent - self-reliant economy associated with integration, Vietnam has seen many important achievements with increasingly persified industries, and enhanced production capacity, strong development of private businesses and large corporations of international and regional stature.

Sang said in order to seize opportunities, deal with challenges and be a link, enterprises need to be proactive and active in improving their own capacity and competitiveness.

Sang suggested enterprises change management and administration methods, have a brand development strategy, actively register and manage product trademarks for legal protection; improve the ability to participate in the global value chain in the stages of product design, product distribution, supporting research and training development.

To overcome the limitations of small scale and limited capital, small and medium enterprises should attract external capital; promote association and cooperation activities with other enterprises.

Along with that, experts at the seminar said they should focus on developing human resources, improve professional qualifications and pay attention to deeper understanding of rules of origin; intellectual property; and administrative procedures - customs, especially commitments under free trade agreements./.