The factors affecting the environmental information reporting of listed companies in Vietnam

Journal of Science and Technology, Vol.37, 2019

© 2019 Industrial University of Ho Chi Minh City

THE FACTORS AFFECTING THE ENVIRONMENTAL INFORMATION

REPORTING OF LISTED COMPANIES IN VIETNAM

NGUYEN THI MAI HUONG1

, NGUYEN THI KIM TUYEN, DO KHANH LY2

1Banking University Ho Chi Minh City, 2

Industrial University of Ho Chi Minh City;

[email protected] , [email protected], [email protected]

Abstract. The success of many organizations depends on the level of resource ownership, the real value

of the expertise, the research and development activities, the interaction with the environment and society

where they operate ... Thus, the description of resources according to the traditional expression of

financial statements (FS) of Vietnamese enterprises has not met the demand of using information of

stakeholders in the integration trend. Therefore, the paper is designed to analyze the factors affecting

environmental information disclosure and propose solutions to enhance the responsibility for

environmental performance, to meet the compliance with international practices and increasing the

transparency of the stock market in Vietnam in the spirit of Circular 155/2015 / TT-BTC of listed

enterprises.

Keywords. Environmental information, environmental reports, environmental accounting,…

1. INTRODUCTION

The enterprises are using the environmental information report (EIR) as a tool to express their

awareness (Sumiani, Haslinda and Lehman, 2007) when meeting the legal requirements, satisfying the

needs of the Stakeholders, improve relationships with customers, investors and employees ... create

competitive advantages, increase turnover, then improve financial results, improve reliability and

usefulness to the Stakeholders (Gray and partners, 2001; Hackston and Milne 1996). For nearly 25 years,

this topic has received a lot of attention from researchers and operating enterprises. Such as:

Approach by information disclosure method: Roberta Salomone and Giulia Galluccio (2001) in the

study "Environmental issues and financial reporting trends in the petroleum and chemical industry"

conducted the research about annual reports of 82 chemical and petroleum companies from the year 1993

to 1998, in particular 26 companies in the US and Canada, 26 companies in Northern Europe, 26

companies in Southern Europe and 4 companies from other countries showed 92.1% of selected

companies already brought the EIR into the annual report, in which 100% of companies from the United

States or Canada are subject to strict environmental regulations, followed by 96.2% Northern Europe,

finally Southern Europe. Despite few environmental regulations, the publication rate is still quite high at

86.8%. Sumiani, Haslinda and Lehman (2007) conducted a study of 50 leading Malaysian public

companies from various NCNs listed on the Bursa Malaysia Stock Exchange in the fiscal year of 2003.

The results show that the level of EIR in annual reports of Malaysian companies are quite low, showing

general information or qualitative information. The most reported information is about the existence of an

environmental management system, environmental policies in enterprises. This study also concluded that

the ISO certificate of environmental management system has influenced on voluntary environmental

reporting.

Approach according to disclosed environmental information: Currently, there is no separate

international accounting standard to mention environmental information, which is scattered directly and

indirectly in many different standards (Elena M. Barbu, Pascal Dumontier, Niculae Feleagă and Liliana

Feleagă, 2014). The international accounting standards for environmental information such as IAS 1, IAS

8, IAS 20, IAS 37 and IAS 41, IFRS 6, IFRIC 5 were analyzed in the study of CA Mohammad Firoz,

Prof. . A. Aziz Ansari (2010). Or in the article "Environmental accounting and international financial

reporting standards" also noted a number of accounting standards related to the environment and in each

accounting standard has indicated the relevant paragraph and have accompanying explanations such as: