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In Vietnam, the domestic private sector is increasingly recognised as an important component of the economy. The sector (including domestic private enterprise –VPEs - and household enterprises) accounted for 97% of total enterprises in operation, contributed over 40% of GDP, 38% of the state budget and accounted for 80% of employees in 2018. 

Recently, the use of largest firms’ index as a proxy for the domestic business situation and health of the economy has become more common, particularly in the stock market. For instance, the S&P500 or Standard & Poor's 500 Stock Index in the United States is a conventional index reflecting the health of the US economy; the Fortune 500 (F500) referring to the business performance of the country. In Vietnam, the VNR500 report, which has been published annually by Vietnam Report (VR) since 2007, shows the business performance of the 500 largest firms as well as the 500 largest private firms. The VNR500 ranking, like the Fortune500, is based on sales in the fiscal year.

To some extent, the report is a good reference on business performance results, facilitating the listed firms in acquiring more business reputation and credentials. However, it is unlikely to provide adequate information to policy makers because it is designed for advertising and reflecting for each of the top-500 individual firms, rather than as a proxy for business and private sector performance. It also does not provide a correlation or linkage between the top 500 and the remains. There is also an UNDP report (Top200), but it only covers the year 2007. The report shows the strategies of the top 200 Vietnamese industrial firms succeeding in domestic and international markets.

This research aims to partly fulfill the gap as the first in a series of annual reports on the 500 largest private firms in Vietnam (VPE-Top500), which will be a reference source for both the government and the business sector. The overall objective of this research is to investigate the business performance of the top-500 private domestic firms in Vietnam and the correlation of this group to the remaining business in order to induce policy implications for business development in Vietnam.