Media: According to the US Department of State 2010, the government continues to restrict freedom of speech and press, despite both being guaranteed by the law. Freedom House 2011 reports that the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) exerts control over all media and set press guidelines. Any report that is viewed as threatening to the CPV’s legitimacy can bring charges under defamation laws and the criminal code. On the other hand, Freedom House Countries at the Crossroads 2010 also reports that in recent years, the Vietnamese government has repeatedly encouraged the media to report on corruption, and there has been an increase in media coverage on both petty and grand corruption cases. Nevertheless, it is reported that most journalists will only probe into corruption if they have been authorised by state officials to do so. The same report also mentions that the May 2008 arrests of Vietnamese reporters who exposed the 2006 PMU-18 scandal, one of the most notorious scandals in Vietnam, has raised concerns about a return by the government to tighter controls on the media. The journalists were released in January 2009; however, the arrests have stirred much concern as well as renewed journalists’ reluctance to investigate state abuses without clear high-level authorisation. According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark and the World Bank Report 2009, the Anti-Corruption Law 2005 provides opportunities for the media to report on corruption cases. However, some of the articles concerning the media are somewhat contradictory. For example, one of the articles provides the media with a right to report corruption cases, while another article states that the media bear responsibility for their reported content. The revised Press Law is still being drafted and it is generally believed that it could give the media greater freedom to report on corruption. While online reporting on corruption has now overtaken print media, online censorship has also increased, and in 2008, an agency was set up by the Ministry of Information and Communications to oversee the internet and bloggers, as reported by Freedom House 2011. Numerous reports of police officers raiding homes and confiscating computers surfaced in 2010. Freedom House 2011 describes Vietnam's media environment as 'not free' and the country is ranked very poorly in relation to press freedom as 179th out of 196 countries, while the Reporters Without Borders' Worldwide Press Freedom Index 2010 ranks Vietnam as 165th out of 178 countries.

Civil Society: According to the Bertelsmann Foundation 2010, civil society in Vietnam has traditionally been working in partnership with the government rather than being independent from the party-state system. The state agencies (see 'Public Anti-Corruption Initiatives' in the Initiatives section) are also the dominant actors in the fight against corruption in Vietnam. According to Freedom House 2011, NGOs working with health, environment and women's rights have gained more freedom to operate, but human rights NGOs and other private groups with rights-oriented agendas are forbidden, and no such gains have been registered for private anti-corruption initiatives. No information is available regarding private initiatives aimed at countering corruption. According to Global Integrity 2009, the government imposes ‘unofficial’ barriers such as delaying decisions on allowing CSOs working on transparency and good governance. Moreover, it is also reported that anti-corruption and/or good government advocates are subjected to physical violence or imprisonment. In 2009, Vietnam ratified the United Nations Convention against Corruption (UNCAC). According to the UNCAC's Article 13, each state must promote the participation of society, including civil society, NGOs and community-based organisations, in order to raise public awareness of the need to combat corruption. According to the UN Press Release 2009, there are still several issues that the Vietnamese government needs to prioritise, among these, the necessity to empower civil society, media and the private sector.

Vietnam Competitiveness Initiative (VNCI): The VNCI is a USAID-funded economic growth project managed by Washington based Development Alternatives Inc. intended to improve the competitiveness of SMEs in Vietnam. The project has three components: policy environment, SME capacity-building and SME access to finance. The VNCI produces the Vietnam Provincial Competitiveness Index (PCI), which maps the business climate in all Vietnamese provinces. The index provides in-depth knowledge of regulatory obstacles and informal charges for public services, which can be very useful for companies operating in Vietnam. The VNCI phase 2 (VNCI 2) started in October 2009, and it will last until February 2013. The VNCI 2 works with the Vietnamese government to solve issues that are currently obstructing the country's business environment. The aim of VNCI 1 and VNCI 2 is to create an efficient administrative system and to streamline the business environment for companies and citizens.