This is an annual program operated under the government’s control in Announcement no.398/TB-VPCP on December 15, 2015 about ranking sustainable businesses since 2016. Main purpose of the program is to praise leading and recording enterprises in sustainable development, and to encourage the consideration of Vietnamese corporations to the topic of sustainable development, setting goals and executing sustainable strategy for their businesses.

CSI (Corporate Sustainable Index) is a breakthrough in Viet Nam, due to its first born and specific design for Vietnamese enterprises. It is easy to use, well-applied to companies in any industry, in any size and scale. Questions are composed by leading professionals from VCCI, involved Ministries and Departments and featured the support from national and international economic professionals. CSI for 2017 has been re-edited for better business ranking, however, it still focuses on 3 cores: economic index, social index and environmental index in 151 questions divided in 2 sections: general items and specific items.

At the kick-off meeting, Mr. Nguyen Quang Vinh, member of the Council, Vice Secretary of VCCI, Vice President and Secretary of VBCSD stated that sustainable development has become an urgent and essential topic in global economics, and a challenge in global integration.

“Sustainable economics raises the inner force and situation of an enterprise, which helps them win the belief from government, customers, investors and involved parties,” he assumes. “Research and surveys worldwide have explained that sustainable businesses are those with higher competitive ability, higher productivity, better adaptation and integration than companies who only focus on benefits and neglect their responsibilities to the society and their living environment.”

Aside from this, Mr. Dao Dinh Thi, President of Bao Viet Corporation and Vice President of VBCSD also welcome CSI due to its advantages.

“CSI sets a standard for Vietnamese enterprises on sustainable development. For Bao Viet Corporation, we keep learning such experience from neighbor and partner countries in following 17 sustainable development goals from the United Nations in long-term strategy, study the International Index on Sustainable Development Report, put it in practice and share the knowledge about it. Bao Viet builds the report according to CSI and GRI (Sustainability Reporting Standards) in 2016, to rank the application of Environmental, Societal and Corporate Governance items in the execution of our sustainable development plan.”

In 2016, the first Programme on Benchmarking and Ranking the Most Sustainable Companies in Viet Nam has 400 participants from various industries among the country. The top 100 enterprises has been praised as Business of Sustainable Development. This year 2017 is the second launch of the program is coordinated by VCCI/VBCSD, Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs (MOLISA), Ministry of Industry and Trade (MOIT), Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MONRE), Viet Nam General Confederation of Labor, State Securities Commission of Viet Nam, and Party Committee of the Centrally-run Businesses’ Sector. The announcement of sustainable businesses 2017 will be held on December 2017.