Viet Nam Report and online newspaper Vietnamnet on Friday in Ha Noi announced the VNR500, with private firms accounting for half of enterprises in the ranking while their contribution to the economy rose from 27 per cent of GDP in 2016 to 32.3 per cent in 2017.

This has been the 11th year the rankings have been released to honour businesses which achieved outstanding results in 2017’s financial year.

Last year saw the recovery of the economy, helping the business community.

Some 75 per cent of firms in VNR’s survey reported increasing revenue in 2017 which was much higher than the previous year.

“The increasing number of private companies and their turnover contribution on the VNR500 2017 partly reflected the Government’s efforts in improving the business environment to facilitate all economic sectors as well as achievements in the privatisation process of State-owned enterprises (SOEs),” the report said.

Truong Hai Auto Corporation lost its top spot among largest business private companies in Viet Nam this year to Vingroup, while Vinamilk was at the third position on the list.

Several other big names were also ranked, such as FPT, Masan, Mobile World, Doji and Hoa Phat.

SOEs contributed the highest turnover among the three economic sectors. However, SOEs’ turnover fell from 59 per cent in 2016 to 52 per cent this year.

Most surveyed firms said the acceleration of the economy’s restructuring, especially via administrative procedure reform and cutting business and investment conditions would be vital for their development this year.

They expected that the Government would tackle corruption, cut public investment, improve human resource training and restructure State-owned groups and corporations.

Under the ceremony, Viet Nam Report also announced the Top 50 Viet Nam the Best 2017, top 10 prestigious listed companies, top 10 prestigious pharmaceutical companies and top 10 prestigious tourism companies in 2017.

In the midst of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, Viet Nam Report also introduced its bilingual White Paper Annual Report: digital economy and start-up nation.

The report showed that Viet Nam has favourable geographical, political and economic conditions as well as a high rate of internet users.

However, the report revealed that many companies have not paid adequate attention to using digital technologies.

The two biggest reasons that made them hesitate to apply technologies in digitalisation were the large amounts of capital required and a lack of high quality human resources.

Developing a digital economy in Viet Nam would bring opportunities for the business community. However, enterprises should be active in implementation together with support from the Government in terms of strategies, policies and legal framework to drive prosperity and sustainable development, the report said.

As part of the event, Viet Nam Report, Vietnamnet, Michael Dukakis Institute and Viet Nam Golf Institute will hold a golf tournament - Vietnam Top 500 CEO Golf Championship 2018 for the firms’ leaders in Viet Nam at Vinpearl Golf Hai Phong today.

The Top 500 Largest Enterprises list from the Revenue Ranking Board follows the Fortune 500 model.