FAST500, the list of the 500 Vietnamese enterprises that have the fastest growth rates, will provide a panorama of Vietnamese businesses in the WTO period since the Enterprise Law took effect.

VietNamNet’s Vietnam Economic Forum VEF had a talk with Vu Dang Vinh, Chief Executive Officer of Vietnam Report Company about FAST500, the ranking that will be released for the first time in Vietnam on March 30.

Could you please tell us about the differences between VNR500 and FAST500? Why has Vietnam Report waited until now to survey and rank the enterprises with fastest growth rates?

VNR500 is the ranking of the 500 biggest Vietnamese enterprises and the first VNR500 report was released in 2007. The ranking is carried out based on Fortune500 model, with the consideration of some indexes, including the turnover of enterprises, total assets, number of workers and profits.

Meanwhile, FAST500 measures the enterprises with fast growth rates. This will be a panorama of the growth of Vietnamese enterprises.

There are three reasons why we have only released FAST500 now.

Firstly, a four year period of releasing VNR500 allows us to collect sufficient data that serves the statistical work on which we can base FAST500.

Secondly, we need a period long enough to measure the growth of enterprises. Four years (2006-2009) gave us enough time to observe and survey in order to find out the most reliable results which can accurately show the overall picture of the most dynamic enterprises that have fastest growth rates. Now is the best time to release the FAST500.

Thirdly, at this moment FAST500 will provide an outlook on Vietnam’s business environment in a crucial period,, five years after Vietnam joined WTO and five years after the Investment Law and Enterprises were enacted.

Can FAST500 embrace all the growth of enterprises and the number of enterprises with fast growth rates in the whole country if Vietnam Report only relies on its database and the figures provided by enterprises?

We conduct research and surveys on different sources of information, including the source developed by Vietnam Report (the data about 2000 enterprises in VNR500 have been updated regularly, plus the data about 30,000 enterprises considered to draw up V1000 ranking – the list of 1000 biggest corporate income tax payers), and different sources provided by agencies. Meanwhile, businesses tend to be more cooperative which has helped us much in doing surveys.

What significance does the index of growth rate have? Does it show the real strength of enterprises?

In order to be listed in FAST500, enterprises need to meet a lot of requirements. They have to meet minimum requirements in turnover growth in the last four consecutive years. They need to have  total assets of more than 100 billion dong, and they need to meet the requirements in numbers of workers and profits.

FAST500 can be seen as an affirmation for the “rising stars” in the picture of the general growth of Vietnamese enterprises in the last four years 2006-2010. How enterprises will develop in the next period of 5-10 years will depend on many things, including businesses’ strategies and the policies of the State.

In FAST500, we can see the encouraging results of the enterprises in northern mountainous areas: five percent of enterprises with fastest growth rates are located in the areas. What is your comment on this? Is the growth sustainable?

The enterprises in northern mountainous areas have gained high growth thanks to natural resources which help develop mining, construction, agriculture-forestry industries. The equitization mechanism has also facilitated the growth of enterprises.

Besides, in the last few years, the State has made big investments in mountainous areas. For example, the infrastructure and transportation conditions have been upgraded, which has brought more business opportunities and market development.

Ngoc Ha – Hai Yen