Legal arguments to ensure freedom of business in the market economy in our country Nowadays, people's right to freedom of business is realized through actual activity from capital contr
Trang 1DISCUSSION ON BUSINESS FREEDOM AND SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITIES OF
ENTERPRISES IN THE INDUSTRIAL AGE 4.0 IN VIETNAM FOLLOWING LEGAL
SCIENCE Assoc.Prof.Dr.Ho Xuan Thang - Senior Lecturer at Faculty of Economic Law,
Banking University of Ho Chi Minh City
Abstract: In the Socialist Republic of Vietnam State is a socialist rule of law state, all
subjects have the right to freedom and obey the law, including the right to do business In this
article, the author focuses on analyzing the freedom of business of organizations and individ ua ls
in the multi-sector socialist market economy of Viet Nam on the basis of discussing and analyzing
more specifically the responsibilities of organizations and individuals The social responsibility of
enterprises engaged in business activities under the impact of the digital technology revolutio n
according to the prism of legal science to exchange
Keywords: Freedom to do business in the digital age in Vietnam; Corporate social
responsibility in the 4.0 technology revolution in Vietnam
I Legal arguments to ensure freedom of business in the market economy in our country
Nowadays, people's right to freedom of business is realized through actual activity from
capital contribution, capital mobilization, capital change and capital divestment, because it is one
of the economic rights of human beings If people do not exercise the right to freely conduct
business through activities aimed at making profits such as capital contribution, capital
mobilization, capital change and capital divestment, it cannot be understood as a unified code of
conduct according to the law The concept is the right to do business freedom of people in the
current digital economy era
In fact, many scientists have argued that the right to business freedom is a bold
manifestation of the nature of private ownership There, prices are determined by market forces as
well as the ability to enter and leave the market, all of which are free to compete in a market
economy under direct regulation of law Considered from many different angles, such as financ ia l
freedom brings about currency convertibility, stability of the value of money, independence of
central banks and financial markets Or in terms of low taxes and a flexible labor market that
creates a lot of added value in line with the market's supply and demand The author is very
interested in the research of Dreher et al., which has demonstrated specifically that the above issues
are closely related from to business, commerce, currency, government, fiscal policy, propert y
rights, investment, financial freedom, corruption and labor, where higher values indicate an
economic environment or policies that favor economic freedom in general and freedom of business
in particular That is, the value that Dreher and colleagues have demonstrated is that economic
flows are actually considered a measure of globalization, especially in the digital age Because,
free enterprise it must exist in a market economy, where supply and demand determine all the
value of freedom through property ownership and regulatory instruments of which the law is the
rule general rules of conduct
Thereby showing that business freedom is an inevitable trend in the process of
globalization with the peak proactive role of digital technology, and Vietnam is not an exception
Trang 2Article 33 of the 2013 Constitution stipulates: “Everyone has the right to freely conduct business
in the professions not prohibited by law”
When analyz deeply we see, this regulation contains two important ideas., One is:
Everyone has the right to do business; Second: The limitation of liberty is what the law prohibits
That is, to ban something, the State must stipulate in writing legal documents, there must realize
the right to freedom of business that is not contrary to the Constitution and the legal system on
business In recent times, affirming the compatibility of the Constitution on the right to freedom
of business, the National Assembly has actively affirmed its right to promptly issue legal
documents, such as the Enterprise Law 2020, the Investment Law, and the Law on Investme nt
April 2020; Social legal; Labor Code; Land law… Specifically: Article 50 of the current Civil
Code stipulates the right to freedom of business as follows: “The individual's right to freedom of
business is respected and protected by law Individuals have the right to choose the form, field and
line of business, establish an enterprise, freely enter into contracts, hire labor and other rights in
accordance with the provisions of law Article 4 of the current Labor Code recognizes the State's
policies on labor as follows: Creating favorable conditions for job creation, self-employme nt,
vocational training and apprenticeship to get a job; production and business activities attract many
workers In the Enterprise Law: Article 5 stipulates the State's guarantee for enterprises and
business owners; Article 7 stipulates the rights of enterprises, whereby enterprises have the right
to conduct business in lines and trades that are not prohibited by law; Article 8 stipulates the
obligations of enterprises
Business freedom has been approached in the direction of simplifying licensing conditions
and procedures, abolishing many regulations on business conditions, and expanding groups of
enterprises' self-determination rights For the first time, a complete list of industries and trades
prohibited from doing business and doing business with conditions has been gathered and
specifically listed in a document of the 2005 Investment Law with nearly 2,000 conditio na l
business lines Pursuant to the 2015 Enterprise Law, 267 conditional business lines; in 2017
reviewed and abolished 40 state-owned monopoly conditional business lines, the remaining 227
business lines have registered and up to now the Investment Law 2020 is effective capacity, 227
registered occupations are still feasible in practice
From the perspective of business law, the reality of the legal basis for ensuring the right to
freedom of business in the market economy in Viet Nam is reflected in the rights of enterprises in
Article 7 of the Enterprise Law 20201 The author analyzes the rights measured by rights groups,
as follows:
1 1 Freedom to do business in lines and trades not prohibited by law; 2 Business autonomy and choice of business
organization form; proactively select industries, occupations, geographical areas and business forms; proactively
adjust the scale and busines s lines.; Selection of forms and methods of capital mobilization, allocation and use; 4
Freedom to search for markets, customers and sign contracts; 5 Export and import business; 6 Recruit, hire and
employ workers in accordance with the labor law; 7 Actively applying science and technology to improve business
efficiency and competitiveness; have intellectual property rights protected in accordance with the law on intellectual
property; 8 Possession, use and disposition of assets of the enterprise; 9 Refuse requests of agencies, organizations
and individuals to provide resources not as prescribed by law; 10 Complaints and participate in legal proceedings in
accordance with law; 11 Other rights as prescribed by law
Trang 31.1 The freedom to do business of organizations and individuals is reflected in the
freedom to contribute capital
In terms of business in the digital economy in Vietnam, capital contribution is the creation
of common assets for business activities of an enterprise, in order to ensure the costs of its
operations and ensure the interests of its partners other related work Viewed from the perspective
of legal science, capital contribution is the act of transferring assets or putting assets to use in
business activities in exchange for benefits from economic organizations
According to the author, ensuring the right to freely contribute capital to an enterprise is to
ensure that business entities have the opportunity to access and seek benefits in the company in
which they have decided to contribute capital When approaching capital, the form of diversified
capital cannot fail to mention four types of capital, as follows: i) economic capital is money and
assets are movable and real estate including movable and immovable property formed in the future;
ii) cultural capital means cultural goods and services, including educational certificates; iii) social
capital, i.e networks and acquaintances and iv) symbolic capital, which refers to the legitimacy of
contributed capital
However, not all types of "capital" are recognized as the capital contribution to the
enterprise In the world, according to the analysis by Louis Bach, many countries' laws only
recognize the types of "assets" contributed as capital, including: money, kind, land, usufruct rights,
intellectual property rights, intellectual property, public works power and commercial property2
In Article 34 of the Enterprise Law 2020, regulations on assets contributed as capital are
as follows: “1 Assets contributed as capital are Vietnam Dong, freely convertible foreign
currencies, gold, land use rights, intellectual property rights, technology, technical know-how,
other assets valuable in Vietnam Dong; 2 Only individuals or organizations that are lawful owners
or have lawful use rights to assets specified in Clause 1 of this Article have the right to use such
assets to contribute capital in accordance with law.” - From a practical point of view, this regulat io n
has clearly affirmed the determination of assets contributed as capital by organizations and
individuals to enterprises Regarding the right to contribute capital of foreign investors, the
Enterprise Law 2020 and the Decree guiding a number of articles of the current Enterprise Law
have institutionalized equality between domestic investors and foreign investors related to the rate
of capital contribution and share purchase by foreign investors It can be seen that the freedom of
foreign investors to contribute capital has been expanded in line with the digital technology phase
of the globally integrated economy to develop the country
It can be affirmed that the current law of Vietnam has changed the regulations on assets to
contribute capital, conditions for capital contribution to be similar to the laws of countries around
the world and in accordance with international treaties Vietnam is a member The change of law
has a positive impact on the number of newly established enterprises and the source of capital
contributed to enterprises If in 2000 Viet Nam was only 39,069, the total number of FDI
enterprises was 1,528, the source of equity capital is 370,660 billion VND, of which the equity of
FDI enterprises is 108,737 billion VND, as of May 2021 There are 44,166 newly established
enterprises with a total registered capital of 627.7 trillion VND, up 17.5% in the number of
enterprises and 41% in the registered capital over the same period in 2020 The number of newly
established enterprises increased the highest in the years 2017-2021 and increased in all economic
2 Louis Bach (1999), Droit Civil, Tome 1, 13e Edition, Sirey
Trang 4sectors By economic sector, the service sector had the highest number of newly established
enterprises with 31,314 enterprises, accounting for 70.9% of newly established enterprises in the
first 4 months of 2021, an increase of 18.2% compared to the previous year with the same period
last year; registered capital was 388.8 trillion dong, accounting for 61.9% of total registered capital
and increasing by 24.3%
From the perspective of industry and construction, there are 12,152 enterprises, accounting
for 27.5% and increasing by 15.2%; registered capital was 225.2 trillion dong, accounting for
35.9% and increasing by 83.1% The agriculture, forestry, forestry and fishery sector have 694
enterprises, accounting for 1.6%, up 24.4%; registered capital was nearly 13.7 trillion dong,
accounting for 2.1% and increasing 44.2%.3
According to the author, in addition to the efforts of the business community, the above
results have been achieved thanks to measures to improve the business environment and support
businesses implemented strongly in the past According to the assessment in the Report "Vietna m
Business Environment Reform Program: An Enterprise Perspective" made by the Vietnam
Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI), in 11 areas of Resolution 02/ NQ -CP in 2020 on
continuing to perform the main tasks and solutions to improve the business environment and
enhance national competitiveness in 2020, the field of business establishment is the most
appreciated field , with 72.5% of enterprises rating the change as good or very good
Obviously, the freedom to contribute capital has had an impact on increasing the number
of newly established enterprises and increasing capital contributed to enterprises in the 4.0
technology era in our country In particular, the significant increase in foreign investors' capital
contribution to foreign-invested enterprises during the time of both fighting against the Covid-19
epidemic and developing the economy
However, in order to ensure the right to freedom of business from the point of view of the
right to freely contribute capital of business subjects, the author believes that the Vietnamese law
needs some amendments and supplements as follows:
Firstly, there is a mechanism to control the actual amount of capital contributed by
enterprises when registering with the business registration agency
As we all know, according to the data recorded on the national portal on business
registration in May 2021, there are two newly registered enterprises in the field of information and
communication in Ho Chi Minh City with a suddenl registered capital of 525 trillion dong
These two enterprises were registered for establishment on May 20, 2021, which is the
Global Automated Business Group Joint Stock Company with a charter capital of VND 25 trillio n
and the Global Automated Technology Investment Group Joint Stock Company charter capital up
to 500 trillion VND Larger than the charter capital of Electricity of Vietnam, Viettel and most
large corporations in Vietnam They all have the same legal representative, the same 3 founding
shareholders, and all do business in the field of information and communication The legal
representative is Mr Nguyen Vu Quoc Anh, born in 1986, permanent address in Thu Duc city
(HCMC) It is worth noting that the source of contributed capital of these two enterprises is not in
accordance with the provisions of Article 34 of the Law on Enterprises 2020, but they are still
licensed to establish an enterprise At the live streams, he repeatedly affirmed that "do not
3 According to the General Statistics Office in the first 6 months of 2021
Trang 5explode", "don't want PR", it means the total registered capital of VND 25 trillion and VND 500
trillion is real and completely valid4
This enterprise has also drawn up "super-terrible" plans such as building 17 buildings for
17 businesses, buying ideas from places, buying 30% of shares of foreign corporations, buying
back 49% of shares of foreign corporations business ceases to operate In addition, this company
also affirmed: "Frankly, I do not have "real" money, the amount of 522 trillion VND is the virtual
currency of the business only The problem here is which control mechanism to control the capital
contribution that enterprises are allowed to contribute to the right type of assets specified in article
34 of the current Enterprise Law so as not to have strong shock problems in the economy and to
properly ensure the right to freedom of business for enterprises According to the author, in
practice, the business registration agency of the province and city, specifically the Department of
Planning and Investment of Ho Chi Minh City, has not done a good job, according to the author
If, the business registration office develops a roadmap to appraise the contributed capital of the
enterprise with a total charter capital of 522 trillion VND during and after the issuance of the
certificate of enterprise establishment to the enterprise There will be no arbitrary registration of
establishment in terms of the amount of contributed capital like the two enterprises mentioned
above At the same time, the business registration agency of the Department of Accounting
Planning and investment needs to exercise their rights that the law has given to them, which is to
sanction administrative violations against enterprises that commit violations of contributed capital
after the establishment of the enterprise According to Clause 3, Article 28 of Decree 50/2016,
sanctioning administrative violations in the field of planning and investment A fine ranging fr om
VND 10,000,000 to VND 20,000,000 shall be imposed for failing to register changes with the
registrar business without fully contributing the charter capital as registered
Accordingly, in Clause 5, remedial measures are prescribed: a) Forcible registration of
enterprise transformation in accordance with the provisions of the Law on Enterprises, for
violations specified in Clause 1 of this Article; b) Forcible amendment or supplementation of the
company's charter or registration of dissolution for violations specified in Clause 2 of this Article;
c) Forcible registration of adjustment of charter capital, percentage of contributed capital and
shares of members and shareholders equal to the contributed capital, for violations specified in
Clause 3 of this Article; d) Forcible re-valuation of assets contributed as capital and registration of
charter capital in accordance with the actual value of assets contributed as capital, for violat io ns
specified at Point a, Clause 4 of this Article; dd) Enforce the registration of enterprise
establishment for the violations specified at Point c, Clause 4 of this Article
However, the contribution of the wrong type of property as registered is not mentioned by
Decree 50/2016, so it is difficult for the post-audit of the business registration agency as well as
other specialized agencies The problem to be said here is, what to do to get this money, he replied
that it was still quite "ambiguous" This boss said: People expect after 3 months in my company's
bank account to have $21.7 billion or more Of course, I have many sources, many of which bring
in cash flow We were self-employed at first We don't have to look for customers, but there will
be a "crowd of customers" A few million customers come back at once, that number is already
out What is quite "strange" is another channel, Mr Quoc He wants the “second brother, third
brother” to contribute to the “youngest brother.” This boss claims that in this economy, his business
4 According to Mr Quoc Anh, the owner of two technology businesses
Trang 6is the youngest brother, while large corporations are the “oldest brother, second brother, "
He expected that these "older brothers and sisters" would each contribute "several billion" But he
also added: "A few billion is not what I bring home I don't need such a large amount of money to
operate because it's too big, just put it in a joint account for everyone to see My corporation's
monthly operation is only a few tens of millions, 20 million in return So I don't need such a large
operating amount." He also mentioned that the third source is from world investment funds because
he thinks it can bring in "millions of dollars, billions of dollars5
According to the author, the provincial enterprise registration agency should exercise its
authority to carry out the post-audit work of enterprises registered to contribute capital according
to the law to ensure the freedom to contribute capital in the freedom of business more practical
Second: The right to contribute capital with labor In the digital market economy, labor is
recognized as a commodity product for exchange between employees and employers by contract,
but the obligation to express the rights of party A is the obligation of party B
From the perspective of current legal policies, the form of capital contribution by
"knowledge" and "labor" is not recognized Meanwhile, some countries in the world such as the
UK, France, the US and China show that people who contribute capital with their labors are entitled
to receive shares of the company, have the right to share profits and available assets, and must also
have obligation to bear losses As for the capital contributed by labor, it is not included in the
company's capital as prescribed in Viet Nam That is, the recognition of capital contribution by
labor, but applied in a flexible and skillful way, does not include the company's capital but is the
basis for profit sharing and loss is a rule in the laws of civil law countries and common law This
regulation increases the opportunity to participate in enterprises and seek profits of entities in the
market economy People can contribute their labor to the company as an established entity instead
of an employee Therefore, the current law should also aim to recognize this form of capital
contribution to ensure the right to freedom of business in the freedom to contribute capital to
enterprises in the industrial era 4.0
Third, capital contribution with knowledge: In the period of industrial development 4.0
where information technology plays a leading role in globalization, the world is moving towards
the development of a knowledge economy consistent with reality Knowledge is no longer a vague
definition, but it has become a valuable asset of every organization and individual According to
the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the Asia-Pacific
Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum: “The knowledge economy is an economy in which the
production, transmission and The dissemination and use of knowledge is the most important driver
of growth, wealth creation, and job creation in all economic sectors.6” The author can give specific
examples to demonstrate: General partners in Law Partnership Mai Khang and associates can
contribute capital with a law practice certificate or a Master of Laws or another member can
contribute capital with a doctoral degree In fact, the law of Vietnam is still open to this provision,
so many places have not yet agreed on a general code of conduct for subjects participating in the
mayor in Vietnam Many business entities can still consider the non-regulation does not mean that
5 On the last day to pay 500 trillion, the owner of the 'super enterprise' faces danger, VietNamnet.com newspaper on
August 18, 2021
6 Company Act of Singapore
Trang 7the subject can't do or not, absolutely can't do it Therefore, in order to create motivation for
economic development and respect human rights, Vietnamese law needs to recognize the form of
capital contribution by knowledge
Fourth, regulations on the property need to be general: The author agrees with Nguyen
Quang Duy when discussing the concept of Property is a set of rights on things that effective ly
exclude the rights of other subjects.7 That is, whether approaching property from the perspective
of movable, immovable property or the right of the subject to things, the approach of countries is
general, not specific This way of regulation is to ensure stability and avoid general inconsiste nc y
in the application process However, the provisions of Article 105 of the Civil Code 2015 on
properties are designed according to the method of listing types of properties Many researchers
believe that this method generally omits "intangible assets" such as knowledge, labor,
relationships, reputation, prestige, etc In order to be more complete in understanding and
application In general, in practice with the above-mentioned shortcomings, the author realizes that
the provisions of the Civil Code on the property need to be revised in a more general way as a
basis for unifying the code of conduct for the right to contribute capital of enterprises in the
freedom to do business in a market economy where the industrial revolution 4.0 is playing a very
important role
1.2 Freedom to do business is evident in the freedom to raise capital and change the
charter capital of the enterprise
In Viet Nam, the right to raise capital and change charter capital is the right of enterprises
when participating in the market economy Through the freedom to raise capital and change the
charter capital of the enterprise, capital contributors have indirectly exercised human rights
protected by law According to the provisions of the Enterprise Law 2020: (i) Enterprises issuing
shares and corporate bonds do not need to “ask for permission”; (ii) Types of enterprises easily
mobilize capital in different forms; (iii) Enterprises are entitled to increase or decrease charter
capital according to regulations These regulations show that the right to raise capital and the right
to change the charter capital of an enterprise is quite easy and flexible Countries around the world
have recognized the right to raise capital and increase charter capital through additional capital
contribution, admission of new members or issuance of shares to the public These regulations are
also similar to the current laws of Viet Nam In addition, the regulations on reducing charter capital,
the laws of some countries have certain differences As an example of the provisions of Singapore
law, according to the provisions of the Singapore Company Law, a company can reduce its capital
in the following forms: (i) In case of capital reduction: termination or reduction of capital reduce
the debt for the unpaid contributed capital; cancel capital contributed but lost or no longer in
available assets; pay the contributed capital to shareholders, the capital to be returned is higher
than the company needs; (ii) Conditions for capital reduction: for a public company and a private
company to be entitled to a reduction in charter capital, the company must meet the requireme nt
that “when reducing charter capital, it must still ensure the ability to reduce charter capital
payment capacity and information disclosure in accordance with the law”8 Particularly for an
7 On the last day to pay 500 trillion, the owner of the 'super enterprise' faces danger, VietNamnet.com newspaper on
August 18, 2021 Nguyen Quang Duy (2017), “Improving the law on capital contribution with intangible assets in
Vietnam”, Democracy and Law Magazine (Online), Accessed September 10, 2017 http://tcdcpl
moj.gov.vn/qt/tintuc/Pages/xay-dung-phap-luat.aspx?ItemID=328
8 Vietnamese - French jurist (2009), Dictionary of French - Vietnamese legal terms, Publishing House Polytechnic
Dictionary, Hanoi
Trang 8unlimited liability company, the reduction of charter capital is not prevented Thus, the regulat io ns
on reducing charter capital of the enterprise law of Vietnam and Singapore have very fundame nta l
differences in each legal status of business entities
1.3 Freedom of business in the freedom to determine profits and divestment of
enterprises
In fact, in Viet Nam as well as in other countries around the world, we respect and recognize
the freedom of capital divestment of subjects when participating in business activities That is, the
provisions of the law always uphold the right to transfer contributed capital, terminate the
operation of the enterprise to recover capital and withdraw capital in accordance with the law In
general, the right to withdraw capital of a member or shareholder from an enterprise has similarit ies
between the laws of countries, so this right is a universal right with universal nature on a global
scale
From the perspective of regulatory investment law, we can see that investors' right to
guarantee investment in chapter 2 of the investment law 2020 is designed by the legislators to
develop 5 separate articles9 According to the author, guaranteeing investors to enjoy their rights
in case of force majeure such as the current covid-19 pandemic in Vietnam to support investors in
disease prevention and control to ensure safe supply and operation fracture is left open From this,
it shows that the consistency in the investment law that regulates in urgent cases the right to
guarantee investment for direct investors in our country's market is incomplete Next, this should
urgently be supplemented by the National Assembly with Article 15, Chapter 2 of the current
Investment Law on Article 13 Ensuring business investment in case of force majeure such as the
epidemic It clearly stipulates the right to reduce taxes, social security, bank loans and protect
assets, creating optimal conditions for drug access and demand in the treatment room for
employees of enterprises investment industry
Besides the right to secure investment, investors in Vietnam also have the right to freely
divest Investors have the right to divest capital through some of the following forms: transfer of
contributed capital or shares; withdraw capital from the enterprise; request the enterprise to
repurchase contributed capital; terminate the operation of the enterprise to recover capital
Countries around the world have recorded forms of divestment similar to the provisions of
Vietnam's law To assess the degree of freedom and ease of investors' divestment, it is necessary
to consider the tax policies of the countries involved in this activity One of the tax policies related
to investors' freedom to divest capital is the capital gains tax or capital gain tax According to the
opinion of many scientists, capital gains tax regulations of different countries have different effects
on investors' divestment The law of Vietnam is similar to that of some countries in the world,
typically Singapore, Belgium, Switzerland, the Russian Federation, etc In these countries,
investors are not taxed on capital surplus, so the divestment of capital took place smoothly and
the interests of investors were completely guaranteed Some countries have quite clear regulat io ns
on imposition of tax on capital gains, typically the United States, capital gains, capital types and
owners, which have different tax rates at different times as a basis for the state to levy taxes
According to French law, the State imposes tax on capital gains with different tax rates for differe nt
9 including: Article 10 Security of property ownership rights; Article 11 Ensu ring business investment activities;
Article 12 Guarantee of foreign investors' right to transfer assets abroad; Article 13 Guarantee of business investment
in case of change of law; Article 14 Settlement of disputes in business investment activities
Trang 9subjects: French citizens10, EU citizens and other countries The capital gains tax rate under French
tax law may change from time to time in order to increase revenue and regulate the economy
Vietnam does not tax capital gains In our opinion, the absence of this tax has helped
investors have great benefits, that is, investors who are investing in Vietnam when they divest their
capital and the value of their contributed capital increases, they do not have to pay tax to investors
this capital surplus Therefore, investors are very easy to divest and do not have to spend a huge
amount of money to fulfill their tax obligations This regulation affirms the public invest me nt
guarantee, transparency and equality in legal policies to help investors freely in divestme nt
activities in particular and business freedom in general in the digital economy in Vietnam
According to the author, in terms of predictability in the long-term future, at an appropriate time
of the commodity market economy, our country needs to apply capital surplus tax The tax rate of
capital gains tax at different times will apply different tax rates so that the interests of investors
are still guaranteed but still harmonize with the interests of the community to increase the
guaranteed tax revenue operating budget of the socialist rule of law state in Vietnam
II Corporate social responsibility in the era of global digital economic integration in
our country
According to the encyclopedia of corporate social responsibility (English: Corporate social
responsibility, abbreviated: CSR) is a form of rule-based activities introduced by businesses to
help businesses contribute to social goals as a humanitarian business that works for the communit y
by participating in, supporting volunteer activities, or performing ethical activities
This term used to be understood as an internal policy of an organization or an ethical
business strategy, but this is no longer accurate due to the development of many international legal
norms and standards the fact that a wide range of organizations has used their ability to move the
term beyond being merely an initiative or ideal of a few individuals or even of a certain line of
business In the first years of the 21st century, the meaning of this term has gradually changed, it
is no longer just voluntary decisions at the level of an individual organization, but has become a
political policy A must-have book of any organization whether regional, national or internatio na l
In-depth study the concept of corporate social responsibility has recently been defined by
Sheehy as a form of "self-regulation in business by international private enterprises"11 Sheehy
studied a variety of regulatory approaches to come up with this definition of CSR Definitions he
has studied before include the economic definition of "sacrificed profit", the manageme nt
definition of "beyond compliance", and the institutionalist's views on CSR as a " socio-polit ica l
upheavals" and the legal focus on director duties In addition, Sheehy also learned how to describe
CSR as a pyramid of responsibility by Professor Archie Carroll, namely including economic, legal,
ethical and philanthropic responsibilities However, while Professor Carroll did not give an exact
definition of corporate social responsibility, but simply discussed the group of socially responsible
behaviors of business, Sheehy developed a definition specific to the philosophy of science - the
branch of philosophy used to define phenomena That is, Carroll has expanded corporate social
responsibility from traditional legal and economic responsibility to ethical and charita ble
10 Moore Stephens (2016),Doing Business in France 2016, London
11Sheehy, Benedict (ngày 1 tháng 10 năm 2015) “Defining CSR: Problems and Solutions” Journal of Business
Ethics (bằng tiếng Anh) 131 (3): 625–648
Trang 10responsibility in response to growing concerns about ethical issues in businesses12 This view has
been reflected in the book (Business Dictionary) Business Dictionary, which defines corporate
social responsibility as "a company's sense of responsibility towards the community and the
environment, both ecologically and socially." The society in which the company operates means
that companies demonstrate this citizenship through processes: 1 Reducing waste and pollution; 2
By contributing to educational and social programs society; 3 By earning a profit commensurate
with the resources used by the company
From the point of view of legal science, the responsibilities of enterprises in our country
are consistently and clearly expressed from the six general obligations of enterprises Thus, in
addition to those obligations, businesses must always clearly demonstrate their social
responsibility to develop the country, support consumers and promote the strong and effective
development of the business community The determination of corporate social responsibility in
the market economy in our country is similar to the point of view reflected in the business
dictionary mentioned above That is, social responsibility first needs to determine their
responsibilities from the basic obligations of enterprises in accordance with the law According to
the author's point of view, enterprises that demonstrate the social responsibility of Vietnamese
enterprises in the current period are companies that demonstrate this citizenship through the
following three basic groups:
2.1 Reduce waste and environmental pollution
In order to reduce waste and environmental pollution in the process of organizing business
activities for the purpose of making profits, contributing to preventing greenhouse effects affecting
the life of society, the responsibility of enterprises must comply with the law compliance with
business conditions, including the following obligations:
To fully and promptly fulfill the obligations on enterprise registration, registration of
changes in business registration contents, publicity of information on establishment and operation,
reporting and other obligations as prescribed by the Law Enterprise and other relevant laws This
is a very important responsibility of businesses to society That is, when doing business, enterprises
must perform the obligation to register for business establishment in accordance with the legal
order and procedures, and publicly disclose information related to the enterprise In addition, the
issue of capital contribution to the company's charter also assesses the serious responsibility of the
enterprise to publicly and transparently disclose charter capital, business lines, business
headquarters as well as information related to employees legal representation of the enterprise…
and other information about the enterprise in order to bring information to the public and ensure
the state management of the enterprise
According to public data on the website of the Ministry of Planning and Investment, it can
be seen that the responsibility for reducing waste and environmental pollution in society belongs
to enterprises
Although in the context of the whole world and the economy and society of our country
being very heavily affected by the Ceovid- 19 pandemic, in the first June of 2021, the whole
country had 11.3 thousand newly established businesses with registered capital was 164.3 trillio n
12 Ca rroll, Archie B (tháng 7 năm 1991) “The pyramid of corporate social responsibility: Toward the moral
management of organizational stakeholders” Business Horizons 34 (4): 39–48