Vietnam News Network

Tuoi Tre’s investigation of an allegedly prestigious business prize sheds light on how these awards get promoted.

“Enough prizes already!” complain businessmen

The documents about Golden Dragon award

It was not such a good time, it turned out, for a company called Saigon Anpha to launch yet another competition.  Anpha sent out a letter inviting businesses to compete for the  ‘Vietnam Golden Dragon Award,’ prizes to celebrate the 1000th anniversary of Hanoi’s founding and showcase Vietnamese businesses. The criteria for judging seemed to be the ordinary sort of thing: high achievement in production, good impacts on the society, prompt in paying taxes.

Saigon Anpha said that the awards ceremonies in HCM City and Hanoi would be televised live by HTV Channel 9 and VTV1 respectively.

Trouble was, the competition seems to have been mostly hot air, at least at this stage.

Tuoi Tre newspaper smelled a rat when it saw that it was listed as a sponsor.  It checked with Nguoi Lao Dong, also listed as a sponsor, and confirmed that neither paper had been contacted, let alone agreed to support the Golden Dragon events.

Another call confirmed that Vietnam National Television hadn’t agreed to help either.   Deputy Director-General Tran Dang Tuan said that he “knew nothing about Golden Dragon Award or Saigon Anpha.”

Contacted by a reporter, Nguyen Hoang Tuan, General Director of Saigon Anpha, said that 30 to 100 businesses would receive awards.  Asked if businesses would have to pay to get prizes, Tuan said ‘this will be decided by the organizing board.’

The Saigon Anpha chief added that though this is the award to honor Vietnamese businesses, the prize winners will not get certificates or cups, but will only get something like ‘campaign medals’, and that this will be mainly an opportunity for businesses to meet each other and exchange views.  There would not be a panel of judges, he explained, only an organizing board. Who these would be, Tuan could not say.

At least two businesses confirmed to Tuoi Tre newspaper that they had received an invitation to compete.  One, a Vinamit executive, said that he refused to join the competition because he could see problems.  Vien said that there are so many meaningless prizes nowadays sponsored by PR firms that he is fed up with the whole idea. 

Another executive, the head of a cold storage firm, said that her first instinct was to refuse the award.  However, when told that the award is sponsored by a state government agency on the occasion of 1000th anniversary of Thang Long-Hanoi, she asked Anpha to send documents for her thorough consideration.  “There are too many prizes nowadays,” she grumbled.

Not stopping there, Tuoi Tre began contacting the high officials whose support Saigon Anpha claimed.  Had the Deputy Minister of Construction signed an official letter of support?  He couldn’t remember, Nguyen Tran Nam said, but he’d check.  A couple of days later, the ministry said it never did any such thing.

How about the Minister of Interior, whose ministry is responsible for supervising awards and commendations?  He received the letter, Minister Tran Van Tuan reportedly answered, but he didn’t know anything about the character of this company, so he refused.

And the Deputy Minister of Finance?  Nguyen Cong Nghiep acknowledges that he did sign a letter of support.  It didn’t seem to be anything out of the ordinary, he explained.