A Vietnamnet report Wednesday said the study found most of more than 270 businesses surveyed were willing to pay or have paid bribes to "lubricate" procedures related to their business.
The survey was conducted in Hanoi, the northern city of Hai Phong, the central city of Da Nang, Ho Chi Minh City, the southern province of Dong Nai, and the Mekong Delta city of Can Tho as part of a project initiated by VCCI’s Steady Development for Businesses Office.
Money envelopes, travel tours, dinners and employment of officials' relatives were among several forms of bribes mentioned.
In some cases, officials earn profits from their shares in businesses, even though they never buy the shares, the study found.
It also found that many companies willing to pay bribes to get things done saw themselves as victims of the practice.
Sixty-three percent of surveyed businesses said the complicated and unclear system of licenses was one of the main causes of corruption in Vietnam.
More than half of the respondents said that it was a complicated process to lease land from the state, while over 60 percent said they need to have contacts in banks or “relationships” with credit officials to access the government’s loan initiatives.
Nearly 50 percent of the businesses that supply products and services to state-owned agencies and companies admitted they send gifts to officials who are in charge of contracts.
Nguyen Ngoc Anh, chief of the study team, said only 32 percent of the businesses felt that the current laws were strict enough to fight corruption.
Up to 87 percent said laws still have loopholes that allow corruption.
According to Anh, another great challenge was that even good laws were not enforced properly. Businesses also blamed the low salaries that state employees get as a factor encouraging corruption.
VCCI Vice chairman Doan Duy Khuong said businesses accept the "lubricating fees" for immediate benefit, but in the long run, the practice will “destroy" their business thinking and competitiveness.
Businesses should not invest much into “gifts” for officials, Khuong said.
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