Up to 43% of 180 enterprises surveyed in Hanoi, Danang and HCMC said they sometimes deal with bribe requests at taxation and customs agencies, according to the report on business integrity and capacity enhancement released in Hanoi on December 29.

Around 60% of joint ventures said so and the respective figures of State-controlled businesses, State-owned enterprises, foreign-invested companies and private firms are 57%, 50%, 40% and 38%.

Footwear, banking and food processing firms face such requests most frequently with the respective percentages of 53%, 50% and 48%.

As indicated in the report, 55% of enterprises are aware of integrity in doing business. However, only 29% of them have integrity policy in place.

Nguyen Quang Vinh, deputy general secretary of VCCI, said integrity and transparency are the core elements of good corporate governance. Many enterprises are worried about possible bad consequences if they join in corruption prevention.

Economic expert Pham Chi Lan cited data of a World Bank report as saying that taxes and fees account for 40.8% of enterprises’ total revenues, much higher than the corporate income tax of 23%.

In the 2002-2013 period, the ratio of small and micro enterprises inched up from 90% to 95.9%, Lan said.

The ratio of return on asset (ROA) of profit-making private enterprises dropped from 6.6% to 3.2% and the general ROA ratio fell from 6.4% to 3.4% in the period.

SGT