Despite the potential for better opportunities in the global market,
many Vietnamese enterprises struggled to fulfill their corporate social
responsibility (CSR), according to a leading business development
figure.
Speaking at a recent workshop themed “Responsibility
and Sustainable Operation – a Continuing journey”, director of the
Vietnam Chamber for Commerce and Industry’s Office for Business
Sustainable Development Nguyen Quang Vinh said small- and medium-sized
enterprises (SMEs) have a lot of ground to make up.
He
claimed the firms, which make up 97-98 percent of total enterprises in
the country, still lack proper understanding, vision and resource to
observe CSR properly.
“Insufficient awareness over CSR
is the biggest challenge that Vietnamese enterprises are facing,” Vinh
said, listing examples of malpractice including business fraud,
environmental damage, salary violations and poor labour safety.
They
usually believed that social responsibility solely means arranging
charity activities, Vinh said, noting that CSR also includes activities
to ensure efficient economic growth, legal operation and community
participation.
Secretary of the Vietnam Textile and Apparel
Association Dang Phuong Dung said enterprises pay little regard to
social responsibility as they do not see the benefits or opportunities
that CSR can bring them.
“It’s difficult for textile
enterprises to observe social responsibilities as exporters, because
they now have to follow various codes of conduct imposed by different
importers,” she said.
She added that SMEs with limited
staff and financial capacity will find it particularly tough to meet the
various evaluation systems of their partners.
Many
enterprises have so far ignored their social responsibilities, because
until now, Vietnam’s legal framework has not made it compulsory for
every business to follow them.
Experts noted at the
workshop that big companies took social responsibilities more seriously
as part of their efforts to meet partners’ requirements.
Bryan
Fornari, a representative from the EU Delegation to Vietnam, said
CSR should be included in a company strategy, helping enterprises
maintain and improve competitive advantages.
He warned that
as consumers increase their expectations, companies which do not
fulfill their CSR can lose opportunities to access the market.
Vinh
said that if Vietnamese enterprises want to become multi-national, they
have to find a way to effectively fulfill their social
responsibilities.
“It’s key for sustainable development, not just an added burden for enterprises,” he said.
The
workshop was part of a three-year project entitled “Helping Vietnamese
SMEs adapt and adopt CSR for improved linkages with global supply chains
in sustainable production”, which focuses on saving energy, improving
worker skills to match new technology line, as well as avoiding child
labour and counterfeiting products.
With an overall budget
of more than 2.63 million USD, the project was led by the United Nations
Industrial Development Organisation and its governmental counterpart
the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry in cooperation with eight
additional partners.
Chief technical advisor Florian
Beraneck said the project was launched in 2010 as one of several CSR
facilitation programmes in Vietnam.
Over the past three
years, thousands of workers and hundreds of businesses have improved
their understanding of CSR through more than 100 events which have
included forums, workshops and training courses, he said.-VNA