Mr. Nguyen Quang Vinh - Vice Chairman of VCCI, President of VBCSD (middle) announced the CSI 2025 Program.

The CSI 2025 Program marks the 10th consecutive year that VCCI has hosted the program under the direction of the Government to recognize, encourage and commend businesses that practice good sustainable production and business activities, contributing to promoting the building of a community of responsible, sustainable and inclusive business enterprises.

CSI 2025 continues to be organized by VCCI, with the core being the Vietnam Business Council for Sustainable Development (VBCSD), in coordination with the Central Policy and Strategy Committee, the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment, the Ministry of Home Affairs, the Vietnam General Confederation of Labor and this year it is expected to have the participation of the Ministry of Finance.

The CSI 2025 Launch Ceremony attracted the direct participation of more than 150 delegates from the business community, business associations, domestic and international organizations, and news agencies and newspapers.

Assessing the level of sustainable development

The Corporate Sustainability Index (CSI) continues to be used as a basis for assessing the level of sustainable development of enterprises participating in the program. In 2025, the program will find 100 sustainable enterprises, of which the Top 10 sustainable enterprises in the manufacturing and trade - service sectors will be selected.

Celebrating the 10th anniversary of the CSI Program, the Organizing Committee will also honor enterprises that have been in the Top 10 and Top 100 of the program for 10 consecutive years.

Mr. Nguyen Quang Vinh - Vice Chairmna of VCCI, President of VBCSD, Deputy Head of the Steering Committee of CSI 2025 Program spoke at the Kick off Ceremony.

Speaking at the launching ceremony, Mr. Nguyen Quang Vinh, Vice Chairman of VCCI, President of VBCSD, Deputy Head of the Steering Committee of the CSI 2025 Program shared: "The year 2025 has a very special meaning when it marks not only 15 years of operation of VBCSD, but also 10 years of implementing the CSI Program. Realizing that strengthening corporate governance capacity - the G factor in ESG, will help businesses build a solid "foundation" to successfully implement sustainable development strategies, thereby enhancing competitiveness and resilience, and long-term recovery for businesses, we have pioneered very early in building the CSI Index and implementing the CSI Program. Persevering through 10 years, which is also 2/3 of VBCSD's journey, to do that, has shown the strong vitality of CSI".

Mr. Vinh also emphasized: “In the recent Resolution 68 on private economic development, the content of “Honoring, praising, and rewarding typical, advanced entrepreneurs and enterprises that do business effectively, sustainably, fulfill social responsibilities, and actively participate in community activities is also clearly stated. Therefore, the CSI Program is more meaningful than ever”.

In 2025, the Program will focus on ensuring transparency, objectivity, and fairness for all participating enterprises through an independent Evaluation Council, including representatives of the above-mentioned Departments, Ministries, organizations, media agencies, and experts in related fields.

The evaluation and appraisal process is organized strictly and scientifically in 03 main stages: Scoring 03 rounds of documents according to the CSI Index; Appraisal through competent agencies; Steering Committee approving the proposal of the Evaluation Council.

At the same time, all information provided by enterprises will be kept absolutely confidential, so enterprises can be completely assured of the transparency and professionalism of the Program. These factors have created the true value of the CSI Program, attracting the business community to accompany for nearly a decade.

The CSI Index 2025 is structured in 7 main parts, including: Enterprise information; Structure, organizational model and key personnel; Analysis of key issues; Results index in 03 years; Governance index; Environmental index and Labor - Social index.

The index set has also been streamlined to 145 indicators, including 85 basic (C) compliance indicators – accounting for 59%, and 58 advanced (A) practical innovation indicators – equivalent to 41%. Previously, CSI 2024 had 153 indicators, with 62% C indicators and 38% A indicators.

Overview of the Launching Ceremony of the Program for Assessing and Announcing Sustainable Enterprises in Vietnam in 2025 (CSI 2025 Program)

Promoting innovation

According to Mr. Nguyen Tien Huy, Director of the Office for Business Sustainable Development (SD4B-VCCI), Head of the Program Secretariat: After 10 years of organization, drawing on experience from previous organizations, the refinement of the CSI Index - in the direction of increasing the proportion of index A, reducing index C, and at the same time increasing the total bonus points for initiatives in the Program's scoring structure to 10% of the absolute allowed score - also reflects the desire of the Program Organizing Committee to encourage businesses to move from "compliance" to "innovation" in sustainable business practices through new initiatives, thereby helping businesses build better competitive advantages, "reap" greater added values from implementing sustainable development, and adapt better to the context many fluctuations today.

In addition, to attract more small and micro enterprises in the private economic sector to participate in the Program, thereby encouraging this group of enterprises to transform their business thinking and implement sustainable business more strongly, the Program has built a separate version of the CSI 2025 Index for small and micro enterprises, with only 87 indicators in 06 parts compared to the full version of 145 indicators for medium and large enterprises.

The majority of these are compliance indicators (accounting for 84%), with only 14 advanced indicators (accounting for 16%) - this is also consistent with the purpose of encouraging small and micro enterprises to gradually implement sustainable development through ensuring compliance in production and business activities first.

For medium and large enterprises, the CSI 2025 Index adds the requirement of "Analyzing key issues", thereby helping enterprises analyze and identify sustainable contents inside and outside the enterprise, in connection with the needs and expectations of the enterprise's stakeholders regarding these contents, thereby helping enterprises clearly see which factors are affecting their sustainable development strategy in order to make appropriate adjustments.

Ms. Dao Thuy Ha, Deputy General Director of Traphaco Joint Stock Company

Ms. Dao Thuy Ha, Deputy General Director of Traphaco Joint Stock Company said: In the process of improving governance capacity, Traphaco has approached and officially applied the Corporate Sustainability Index (CSI) as a self-assessment tool, reviewing the governance system. The CSI index is not simply a set of scoring criteria, but a "mirror" that helps us comprehensively perceive the effectiveness of business operations from many perspectives - finance, human resources, environment, supply chain and innovation.

"Applying CSI helps Traphaco improve its self-improvement ability, clearly identify strengths and areas for improvement. Thanks to that, we not only maintain the certifications, but also use data from the assessment process to adjust strategies, improve internal performance, and increase value for stakeholders", Ms. Ha emphasized.

Mr. Nguyen Tien Huy, Director of the Office for Business Sustainable Development (SD4B-VCCI), Head of the Program Secretariat.

In 2025, the Program will receive applications from businesses of all sizes and sectors through online submission and will not collect any fees from businesses. In addition to evaluating and announcing 100 sustainable businesses, the CSI 2025 Program also builds award categories to commend and encourage pioneering businesses to implement thematic focuses of the content of "business sustainable development". The evaluation council will meet and propose the selection of thematic content categories based on analysis of international trends and practices of the process of sustainable business development in Vietnam.

In the coming time, the Program Organizing Committee will organize direct/online training courses on Sustainable Corporate Governance in general and how to organize and implement the CSI Index in corporate governance in particular from June to August 2025. The deadline for receiving business applications is August 15, 2025. Businesses can refer to information and participate in the Program at the website: http://vbcsd.vn/csi.asp

The CSI Index is the first index in Vietnam to assess the sustainability of businesses. The CSI Index is built and developed on the basis of four pillars: Economy (E) - Environment (E) - Society (S) - Governance (G) with reference to international standard frameworks of GRI, ISSB, TCFD, CSR, UNGPs... and is refined to suit the reality in Vietnam.

The CSI Index is not only a basis for assessing the level of sustainable development of enterprises participating in the CSI Program, but above all, it is a tool to support sustainable corporate governance, helping Vietnamese enterprises to fulfill their accountability more effectively.

Specifically, when applying the CSI Index, enterprises need to review their sustainable development activities, self-synthesize information according to the instructions, from which they can self-assess their overall "health", as well as the impacts created by the enterprise's activities, thereby building a suitable action plan.

In particular, the CSI Index will be updated annually with content reflecting important legal changes that Vietnamese enterprises need to pay attention to, or new trends from the international community.