Vietnam Country Profile

Private Anti-Corruption Initiatives

  • Media: The state exerts monopolistic control over the media. The media has exposed some major cases involving politicians and civil servants, but there is evidence that these investigations are highly selective, i.e. they are used to demonstrate to the public and to donors that the ruling Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) is actively fighting corruption. An increase in the frequency of media reports on crime and official corruption a few years ago corresponds with government initiatives to appear effective in its fight against corruption. However, the May 2008 arrests of two Vietnamese reporters and their police informant for 'falsely' reporting on one of the most notorious scandals in Vietnam, the 2006 PMU-18 scandal, has raised concerns about a return by the government to tighter controls on the media. The PMU-18 scandal led to the arrest of a number of high-ranking government officials, including Vice-Minister for Transport, Nguyen Viet Tien, who was forced to resign, but was cleared in March 2008 from any criminal responsibilities and exempted from prosecution. The arrest of the two journalists has stirred much international concern as well as among Vietnamese bloggers and journalists, who worry that the event has discouraged reporters from reporting on corruption. According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark and the World Bank Report 2009, the Anti-Corruption Law 2005 (in Vietnamese) 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 pending, and it is generally believed that it could give the media a better protection to report on corruption. Currently many journalists practice self-censorship due to fears of repercussions and a legal requirement to make financial reparations to those harmed by press articles, even if they are accurate. According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark and the World Bank Report 2009, the media are widely encouraged to report on petty corruption, but not on grand and sensitive corruption cases. Online reporting on corruption has now overtaken print media. Nevertheless, the government has been cracking down on freedom of expression on the Internet and officials have raided Internet cafés used by individuals to post underground essays. According to a September 2009 article by The Washington Post, the Vietnamese government has tightened the rules against online bloggers, restricting the content of blogs to only allow writings about personal matters. Freedom House 2009 describes Vietnam's media environment as 'not free' and the country is ranked very poorly in relation to press freedom as 178th out of 195 countries, while the Reporters Without Borders Worldwide Press Freedom Index 2009 ranks Vietnam as 166th out of 175 countries.

  • Civil Society: Freedom House 2009 reports that Vietnamese citizens, especially those living in urban areas, are increasingly free of government interference into their daily lives when it comes to choice of work, residence or participation in economic and religious activities. Although improving, however, religious and academic freedoms, as well as freedom of assembly, reportedly continue to be restricted by the government. 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 2006, business associations in urban areas and NGOs working with health, environment, women's rights and legal issues have gained more space and freedom to operate, but no such growth has been registered for private anti-corruption initiatives. No information is available regarding private initiatives aimed at countering corruption. A number of grassroots initiatives, such as the People's Inspectorate Units and Parent's Associations, are still in their nascent stages. However, some observers argue that the importance of civil society organisations in regards to anti-corruption and providing a check-and-balance on government institutions will increase because the Anti-Corruption Law grants civil society a greater role in monitoring the actions of public employees and fighting corruption in general. 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. The draft form of the National Anti-Corruption Strategy was released in September 2008, and aims at preventing and curbing corruption with a target of 2020. 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. Read more about civil society in Vietnam.

  • 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 Competitive Index (VPCI), 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.