Transparency - one of the elements building foundation for a good company - is becoming an influential part in making decision about which enterprises are better to work and devote for. In the long run, transparency could help creating a healthier working environment, leading to a more productive workforce, and generating greater outcome. It directly touches human factor where HR management engages in deeply.

Those issues were discussed by participants, keynote speakers and businessmen during the CSR Calendar Forum on Fair Operating: WHY ARE TRANSPARENT COMPANIES MORE SUCCESSFUL? held on 28^th May 2015 in Ho Chi Minh City.

Mr. Nguyen Quang Vinh, Member of the Standing Committee of VCCI, Director General of SDforB, VCCI and Representative of GCNV said, transparent issues are catching attention of business community. Lately, VCCI has been appointed to carry out the Action Plan on Enhancing Integrity Implementation Initiative in Business. This is considered as an opportunity to improve business environment. Transparency is an important element to improve productivity and gain trust from stakeholders, increase employee’s loyalty and contribute to sustainable development of a business.

UNIDO highly respects the long-term cooperation with VCCI, in particular SDforB as an effective channel to reach out to both businesses and policy makers, said UNIDO Representative to Viet Nam Mr. Patrick Gilabert. He continued, jointly implemented with SDforB, our program on Social Responsibility - ISO26000 has been a great success for years. UN Global Compact in Viet Nam was established in Viet Nam under VCCI in 2007. Since then, UNIDO always commits and supports 10 UNGC principles in the light of ISID as the extended contextual scope of UNIDO. This clearly shows One UN spirit and tightens our relationship with VCCI.

Regarding ISO 26000 and transparency, Mr. Florian Beranek - Lead Expert Social Responsibility of UNIDO added, ISO26000 is a comprehensive guidelines highlighting holistic approach to business operation. 7 principles of this standard are considered equally important, however 1 of them takes a greater role and serves as foundation for others, named: Transparency. Without transparency, it is hard to follow other principles. No transparency, how can accountability be taken? How can national laws and international norms be complied? How can stakeholders be respected? And not only for ISO26000, it applies for any companies. Business needs transparency in operation, in development, in reaching customers and in competition in the market.

Mr. Pham Anh Duong - Business Integrity Manager, Towards Transparency also mentioned about transparency in HR: “A job is considered to be transparent when it is done openly, without hiding to related parties can rely on the truthfulness and fairness". Transparency is one of the solutions to reduce corruption and fraud. In HR, Transparency accompanying with Accountability makes individuals unable to hide wrong decisions, or hide violations such discrimination, giving favor for relatives and abusing power to gain illegal profits.

This is counted as the 28^th CSR Calendar Forum and serves as a platform for enterprises to join multi-stakeholder dialogues to raise awareness of 6 core subjects of CSR based on ISO26000 and 10 principles of UNGC. The project, besides series of Calendar Fora, also welcomes enterprises to in-class and in-house CSR training courses.

The activity is held under the framework of project “From Global Compact to Local Impact! - Promotion of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) among Vietnamese Business Community for Sustainable Consumption and Production (SCP)”, a joint initiative of the Office for Business Sustainable Development (SDforB) at the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI), the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), funded by the UN One Plan Fund (OPF).

The project also aims for synergies with the EU funded Switch Asia policy module on the development of a national SCP action plan lead by UNEP as well as with the UN Global Compact Vietnam Network under VCCI-SDforB.