TRUNG TÂM PHÁT TRIỂN VÀ HỘI NHẬP

After successfully organized the Round Table meetings on CSR on behalf of BSCI in 2009 and 2010, the Center for Development and Integration continued to be the bridge to connect domestic enterprises to international standards by its collaboration with the Belgian BSCI organization to hold Round Table Meeting 2011 with topic: “Capacity raising on CSR: Implement sustainability for better competitiveness of enterprises in Vietnam”.

BSCI (Business Social Compliance Initiative) was initiated in 2003 by Foreign Trade Association (FTA) with the aim of establishing a common forum about the rules of conduct and European monitoring system of social responsibility of business. CDI also commits itself to promtote CSR and help business implement CSR princiles into the business pracice.
The CSR meeting 2011 continued to show a good combination between different organizations including policy makers at ministry and local levels such as Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs, Department of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs in Ho Chi Minh City, Labour Federation of Ho Chi Minh City. The business community participated well in the Round Table dialogue including Vietnamese Manufacturer Associations such as Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Vietnamese Textile and Garment Association, Vietnamese Leather and Footwear Association), International organizations which work on CSR such as UNIDO, Swedish Trade Council, USAID and Academia such as Vietnam National University Ho Chi Minh City, College of Business Administration for Managers), NGOs and corporate representatives also attended.

The discussions at the Round Tble meeting this year come out with the key discussion issues as follows:

1) Working conditions for employees are not at the standards and thus should be significantly taken care for improvement, by increasing wage scales and wages policies, but also on number of overtime hours, working environment, social and cultural activities for workers and other benefits. The maximum number of working hours should be loosen or more flexible, especially for the sector with labour intensive. The new labour law is expected to allow an increase by at least 360 hours overtime per year.

2) The self monitoring and assessment system should be developed and applied by enterprises. A mechanism or sanction should be released by Molisa and monitored by labour inspectors to protect enterprises doing good CSR practices as this requires financial and human resources to implement CSR and law compliance, and therefore increase production cost, reduce the competitiveness of the company’s product in terms of price to the companies not doing CSR properly.

3) Inconsistent records is critical and increasing cost for enterprises but deceptive practices of double booking still exist due to rigidity of financial procedures. If enterprises do charities, the expenses occurred are not allowed to be booked as eligible expenditures and are still enterprises’ income taxable. This limits the willingness of enterprises to conduct its CSR, and also lead to double booking to avoid tax, which creates intransparency. This fact is pressingly necessary to be improved.

4) There should be a mechanism to allow private sector to provide accredited services such as social audit, financial audit, labour inspection, etc... This will help to ease the difficulties from Government on the lack of human resources to conduct those activities, and increase the socialization of the management tasks that are currently covered by Government. These activities could be done by the independent NGO with relevant competencies.

To promote CSR practice in Vietnam, Government and other government agencies could remain the most important role to build up mechanism for better monitoring of CSR implementation at enterprises. These agencies should also take a leading role to guide enterprises and relevant organizations to reach objectives of BSCI and CSR community in Vietnam. The role of NGOs in the promotion of CSR implementation should be emphasized. BSCI Round Table Meetings should be organized more often and for a larger participants to enhance the awareness and knowledge of Vietnamese enterprises on CSR and BSCI standards, hence increase the competitiveness of Vietnamese enterprises in the international market.