ĐẠO ĐỨc kinh doanh tại việt nam thực tại và giải pháp sv. Nguyễn Thị Nga

difficulties. In an effort to lure more investors to acquire new capital, the company issued an

inaccurate financial report. When the fraud was discovered, shareholders found out that

Bibica has suffered a VND 10.086 billion loss in 2002 (equivalent to USD 7,500,000),

nearly double the number of VND 5.4 billion that the company executives had disclosed

publicly^x. Indispensably, the share price of Bibica fell drastically, leading shareholders to

suffer dramatic losses. In addition, Bibica faced penalties for breaching securities

administration laws by the State Securities Commission (SCC) and nearly went bankrupt.
However, as profits in the stock market were so appealing, similar cases still

occurred. Thien Viet was a securities company established in early 2007 but it drew a lot of

attention from investors as Mr. Nguyen Trung Ha, chairman of Thien Viet was a Deputy

Director General of a top company in Vietnam and in its business registration license, Mr.

Pham Kinh Luan, a prestigious expert in the finance field, was appointed Director General

of Thien Viet. Consequently, though, Thien Viet’s stocks even remained unlisted but were

still sought after by investors. Interestingly, too, Thien Viet’s board of directors disclosed

that the company had signed a cooperation agreement with Goldman Sachs, a leading

finance corporation in the USA (Thien Viet even showed the cooperation agreement with

the signatures of Goldman Sachs’ and Thien Viet’s Presidents to reporters), the price of

Thien Viet’s stocks soared upwards, increasing much more that the listed price. However, a

few days later, in the Thanhnien newspaper (a famous newspaper in Vietnam) an article

appeared, saying that Goldman Sachs denies any formal association with Thien Viet:
“Edward Naylor, Corporate Communications Director of Goldman Sachs in Asia, in

his e-mails to Vietnamese press agencies, stated that Goldman Sachs just established an

informal exploratory dialogue with Thien Viet as we have done with other local securities

companies and has no formal association with this company”.
When asked about the cooperation agreement with the signatures of Goldman Sachs’

and Thien Viet’s Presidents that Thien Viet has shown to reporters, Mr. Naylor said that:

“Goldman Sachs sometimes sign similar agreements with private securities companies

for Thien Viet. As a consequence, Thien Viet paid stiff penalties to the HCM City Securities

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Trading Centre (HSTC) and the State Securities Commission for being dubious and

misleading information released by Thien Viet’s board of directors.

awareness of Vietnamese businessmen about the stock market isn’t complete. Difficulties or

risks are unavoidable in doing business. Under such conditions, prestigious companies have

to call for collaboration from shareholders in an effort to overcome their arduous time.

Although this could be risky, companies could gain confidence in their investors and lessen

the risk of being abandoned, if false information was revealed. But in our survey, to respond

to the question: “When the production line of the company is damaged, causing productivity

to decline, and after being revealed publicly, this information causes the company’s stock

price to fall, what should the company do?”, only 42% chose to inform all investors, 50%

chose “Keep the information undisclosed until the production line is repaired” and 8%

chose: “Not giving any report or information except when forced to do so.”
Despite this result seeming optimistic because 92% of the respondents didn’t intend

to conceal information at least for a certain time, it should be considered as a shortcoming in

the awareness of Vietnamese enterprises.
Some measures for improving business ethics in Vietnam
Evaluation about business ethics reality in Vietnam
Due to time and information limitation, all the aspects of business ethics in Vietnam

could not be fully shown in this paper. However, through the above mentioned cases and

survey findings, we can make some rough comments of business ethics in Vietnam as

following:

about business ethics is very limited; most of them have equated business ethics as a

compliance with the business rules. This misunderstanding has significantly narrowed the

application of business ethics. Moreover, in the countries where law systems are not

complete and strict like Vietnam, such misunderstanding could prevent business ethics

awareness acting in practice.

instead of responsibility to customers and society. A large part of interviewees still being

passive, perform their responsibility only when they are forced to do instead of acting for

social interests.

survey is the awareness about environment and intellectual property. The findings are also

in line with the other findings of the United Nation and other organizations’ survey. In long

term, this could be a serious problem in order to ensure the Vietnam’s sustainable

development.

business ethics in Vietnam. Firstly, 100% of the respondents have heard about business

ethics. Although their definition of business ethics is still vague, their concern of the matter

is an encouraging fact. Another positive sign is the response of students group - most of

them were first year students then have not been taught much in business - but their

responses were more accurate than businessmen group. Most of students frequently heard

about business ethics (17/20), which is completely higher than the general rate (85% in

comparison with 67%). The proportion of students in favor of the opinion that business

ethics is to “protect the rights of consumers” is much higher the general rate (35% in

comparison with 8%). To answer the question about the reaction of enterprises to the

fraudulent exchange by bad guys, none of the students agree with the choice “Do nothing,

because it is not the company’s fault!” in comparison with the general rate 8%. Responding

to the 6th question about the case that a foreign enterprise establishes its firm in Vietnam to

avoiding the loose in the regulations on environment in Vietnam, no students (in

comparison with the general rate 25 %) approve of the choice “It’s acceptable because in

of the students in comparison with the general rate 45% agree that the firm needs to “inform

favors of the opinion that “do not inform until it is obligatory". This result can take root in

Vietnam’s infant stock market, besides the respondents are first-year students with limited

knowledge about enterprise’s responsibility in this market. Similarly, in the 8th question

asking about the opinion on “a firm refuses to hire female labors who have small children

or offer extra-work for female workers who have children under 3 years old", 40% of the

students compared with 24% in general regard this as legal violation; however, 15%

compared with 8% in general have the opposite opinion because “every labor has the

obligation to work equally”. This results from the lack of knowledge about Labor law and

the habit of applying dogmatically the principles about sexual equality, which is popular in

Vietnam. Despite the low result of the survey about these two matters, we can see the

students’ awareness about business ethics is obviously higher and more responsible than the

general result.
Even the sample is still small, the result of the student group, who will be

businessmen, can be considered as a positive signal about the awareness of Vietnamese

businessmen in the future.
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3.2. Proposals for developing and completing business ethics in Vietnam
Although the findings about business ethics in Vietnam reveal some positive signals,

the awareness of Vietnamese intellectuals and businessmen about business ethics still has

some seriously shortcomings. These shortcomings not only harm consumers, businessmen

and society but also cause a bad impact on enterprises’ image, bring about loss to

enterprises and in the long term they would harm the national image in the world. To solve

these problems, the authors would like to raise some proposals as following:

ethics. In Vietnam now it is necessary to complete the related Codes such as: Investment

Law, Labour Law, Enterprise law, Consumer protection Law on, Environment Law... An

important reason for the weakness of business ethics in Vietnam originates from the

incompleteness in Vietnam’s laws. Complete and more rational regulations would prevent

enterprises from taking advantage on law slot to evade their ethic obligations. A typical

example of the matter is Consumer Protection Law. Recently, in the seminar about “The

reality of the legal performance of consumers protection and the orientation to construct

Consumer Protection Law" held by the Department of Competition Control (The Ministry of

Industry and Commerce), Hank Baker – the representative of Vietnam Star project)

confirmed that Vietnamese consumers have not been ensured their rights when using goods

and services. Most of them could only rely on the sellers’ willingness while purchasing

products in the market. Mr. Baker said: “If unfortunately we purchased a bad product, we

regulations protecting the rights of consumers in Vietnam have not been implemented

effectively. According to Ms.Vu Thi Bach Nga, Head of consumers Protection Section

(Department of Competition Control), currently there are only two official legal normative

documents concerning this issue : The Ordinance Consumers Protection Rights (1999) and

Decree 55/2008/ND- CP on 24/4/2008 regulating to implement this ordinance.

effectiveness in reality. The rights and obligations of consumers are being stipulated very

generally. These regulations are only “named" but have not yet deeply analyzed the features

of those rights and obligations. For example, Article 8 of the Ordinance regulates that:

“Consumers are guaranteed about life, health and environment when using products,

service.... ”but does not show, how this right could be performed in reality. What customers

should do to secure themselves? Furthermore, there are still many inadequacies in the

regulation about rights and obligations of organizations, individuals in providing goods and

services. Consumer Protection Law also does not prescribe sanctions to tackle the violation

of organizations and individuals doing business such as wrong balance, unfaithful

information about products and services... Ms. Nga analyzed that : “Article 16 of the

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Ordinance stipulate organizations, individuals producing and doing business have to timely

the Department of Competition Control also reckoned that the regulations about rights and

obligations of consumers in current legal documents are still theoretical, lack of a

mechanism for their implementing. He also emphasized that these limitations have

prevented Vietnamese consumers from being best protected. Mr. Hank Baker also revealed

his anxiety that if the Law Amendment is still designed to focus on administrative

punishment as the old way, consumers would not be effectively protected. He also stated

that in Vietnam’s situation, it is necessary to build up an Association Law to enhance the

role of Association in consumers’ protection. If these limitations are not adjusted, the rights

and interests of consumers would not be guaranteed, as Hank Baker admitted: “I do not like

society need to be aware of business ethics, which requires a great deal involvement of

various propaganda channels. Firstly, media coverage should be involved to spread

knowledge of business ethics to public so that people would be able to protect themselves as

well as to control enterprises’ activities. Secondly, such state bodies as: Ministry of Industry

and Trade, VCCI (Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry), Department of Planning

and Investing in Provinces should participate in a process to popularize the knowledge. This

can be carried out in various ways such as organizing classes for entepreuners on business

ethics; selecting to translate and publish some prestigious textbooks of this topic. It should

be noticed that books for businessmen should be concise and with many practical cases, as

“Handbook of business ethics". Thirdly, Universities and Colleges should supplement the

subject in their curriculum as an independent subject or supporting content in other subjects

like Human Resource Management or International Business... Because the copyright of

business textbooks used to be very expensive, we could rely on the assistance of some

foreign organizations to overcome it. An example is in March 2008, The Information Center

under the Embassy of the United States has funded for the Youth Publishing House to

translate and publish the book "Business Ethics: A Manual For Managing A Responsible

Business In enterprise Emerging Market Economies "of Igor Y. Abramov, Kenneth W. And

Donald L. Johnson Evans, published by Diane Pub. Co. on May 2004, a highly evaluated

book within academic circle. It could be a good way to adapt in the future. Now there are

many organizations with prestigious reputation for business ethics, such as The

1989, having headquarters in the United States, and used to organize the International

Congress on Business Ethics every four year. If we could cooperate with them to

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disseminate update and good quality materials about the issue, we could save a cost and

provide newest knowledge to Vietnamese people.

morality, but people always should try to reach it. It is very difficult to control morality

because it exceeds rules compliance very far. Things are getting harder with business ethics,

because in short-term business ethics compliance rarely present profits for enterprise, while

this is the final purpose for all enterprises. Thus, authorities should be initiative in

encouraging enterprises to engage themselves in practicing business ethics. For example,

such national prizes for enterprises as Vietnam Golden Star or Golden Rose awards should

take the business ethics as one of criteria to be evaluated. To boost the effect, media could

publish articles to praise the enterprises. On the contrary, a heavy punishment should be

issued to enterprises who failed in conducting business ethics in their workplaces. Such

cases of enterprises, which forced their workers to work 16-20 hours per days incessantly

for weeks till they were falling into a faint, but should pay a penalty of only some million

VND, must not be repeated. Or enterprises, which violate environment protection law by let

out waste water into rivers causing series of dead fish, poisoning water for daily needs of

people in their surroundings, must be closed without delay.
Like culture, ethics in general and business ethics in particular are complicated

issues, which require more time and efforts to develop. As in other developing countries,

which have just joined in globalization process, these issues such as business culture,

business ethics are still fledgling in Vietnam. It is known that in a coming time, Vietnam

government has a policy to upgrade people and entrepreneurs' recognition of international

economic integration and globalization issues. Besides, Ministry of Education and Training

recommended Universities and Colleges to amend their curricular to match with global

standards. With the favorable factors and long-standing tradition of ethics in Viet Nam, we

could expect that the consciousness of Vietnamese people of business ethics would be

improved soon in order to maintain a sustainable development in economy and improve

living standards in the country.

i Marcoux, A.M (2006), “The concept of business in business ethics”, Journal of private enterprise”, April 1, 2006.

ii Vickers, Mark R., “Business Ethics and the HR Role: Past, Present, and Future”, Human Resource Planning, January

1, 2005.

iv Phillip V. Lewis (1985), “Defining 'Business Ethics': Like Nailing Jello to a Wall”, Journal of Business Ethics 4

(1985) 377-383. 0167-4544/85/.15

v Ferrels and John Fraedrich , Business ethics- Ethical decision making and cases, Houghton Mifflin Company, 2005.

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vi Accountants face up to the moral maze”, Ian Fraser, The Financial Times 2nd of January, 2008

vii Dung Hieu, Ứng xử khi xảy ra đ́nh công, http://www.vneconomy.vn, 13/11/2007

viii http://www.vnn.vn/xahoi/laodong/2005/11/512631/

ix Laodong Newspaper No 76, www.laodong.com.vn 04/04/2007

x 2002 Vietnam Investment Review Ltd

xi http://english.vietnamnet.vn/biz/2007/03/670242/

xii http://dantri.com.vn/kinhdoanh/Nguoi-tieu-dung-Viet-am-chiu-qua-nhieu-thiet-thoi/2008/6/236945.vip