HÀ NỘI — Breakthroughs in the business environment have created a foundation for renovation, contributing to the growth of the economy and local firms.

This was said at an award ceremony to felicitate the winners of BP500-Top 500 Prosperous Firms 2018 list.

The ranking was announced by Việt Nam Report and online newspaper VietnamNet in Hà Nội on Wednesday. This is the eighth consecutive year the list has been announced based on independent researches and assessment outcomes of Việt Nam Report.

The list aims to honour companies with stable business results and growth potential and that contribute significantly to the country’s prosperity.

Economists and enterprises at the event showed that the BP500 firms achieved positive results.

Last year was considered the year of records. GDP (gross domestic product) growth rate reached 6.81 per cent, the highest in the past 10 years. FDI (foreign direct investment) was some US$36 billion while disbursement was $17 billion. At least 126,859 companies were newly established, and the import-export turnover was $400 billion. The inflation rate was 3.53 per cent, which was lower than the set target.

New policies, including a resolution on the development of the private economic sector, renewal of State-owned enterprises, support to small-and-medium sized firms and restructuring of credit institutions have contributed to a high growth of the Vietnamese economy.

Ngô Thanh Phong, general director of FDC Investment Construction JSC, said the number of sub-licences had sharply reduced owing to reforms in the business environment and mechanism. In addition to this, the reduced lending interest rate and stable exchange rate have created a favourable business environment for companies’ growth. This has proved the efforts of the Government in recent years.

Most of the top 500 prosperous firms are optimistic about the economy this year with expectations of high growth and are planning to expand their business.

The market potential of both local and regional areas, together with an improved business environment, will create new development oportunities for companies, the firms said.

Most Vietnamese companies are looking to improve their productivity in 2018, as this has been an area of weakness for many.

Nguyễn Xuân Thu, deputy general director of Delta Group, said they were studying new technologies in construction to improve productivity.

“By applying new technologies, we will need just one labourer to the current four,” he said.

The firms said they were ready to welcome challenges and grab opportunities by seeking new markets and implementing joint venture projects. They were also willing to pour into promising start-ups.

Talking about the barriers to development, business firms said they were most concerned about administrative procedures and tax issues, although the Government has made some efforts in this regard. More than half of the surveyed firms rated administrative procedures in Việt Nam at the average level.

They said further acceleration of administrative reforms would be a vital support for their development this year.

Economist Nguyễn Quang Thái of the Việt Nam Economic Association, however, said the growth quality of the economy lacked sustainability despite the high growth rate in recent years.

He said this was evident in productivity, quality, effectiveness and competitiveness.

At the event, Việt Nam Report also announced a list of the 10 best firms in the areas of real estate, construction and construction material in 2018, with Vingroup, Khang Điền and Nova among the best firms. — VNS