Sustaining Competitive and Responsible Enterprises II Viet Nam (SCORE II) Executive summary : The development objective of SCORE is that SMEs are more sustainable through being cleaner, more productive and competitive and provide more sustainable and decent employment. The project is expected to achieve the following outcomes: a) Industry associations can market and coordinate enterprise upgrading services to their local members. b) Service providers can effectively deliver training and advisory services for workplace upgrading on a commercially sustainable basis. c) Labour inspectorate services work with mass media to disseminate progressive workplace practices. SCORE is currently completely funded by the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) and implemented in six countries, Colombia, Ghana, South Africa, Indonesia, India and China. A global component coordinates the project and serves as a knowledge hub. The Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (NORAD) will provide funding to expand SCORE. Funding will support the global SCORE component, activities in the six current SCORE countries and introduce SCORE to Viet Nam. Each country will implement the programme in minimum one sub sector and at least two clusters targeting 10-15 enterprises in each cluster. The following overall impact is expected in participating enterprises: ¿ Business growth as a result of improved competitiveness and better access to markets ¿ Overall improvement in the culture of worker-management collaboration leading to continuous improvement as well as reduced labour absenteeism and turnover ¿ Improved quality in terms of reduced defects and improved on time delivery ¿ Improved productivity through better environmental management (reduced waste and energy consumption) and better workplace management (reduced labour accidents and sick leave). The ILO SOCRE approach to enterprise productivity is highly relevant in the current economic and business environment of Viet Nam where, challenging industrial relations and increasing regional and international economic integration (open markets and higher competition) are important agenda items. The ILO counterparts at the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs as well as the employers and the workers recognize the important role of SMEs in the economy. Based on an initial assessment, SCORE will assist suitable partners to incorporate the SCORE methodology into their portfolio, building on past capacity building programmes and lessons learned during the implementation of the Factory Improvement Programme (FIP). As a One-UN country, activities will be aligned with the country’s One-UN plan. While all enterprises regardless of sector and type should operate in compliance with national labour regulations and standards, SCORE will adopt a sector- and cluster approach. Sector selection (step a of Figure 2 above) for SCORE work in Viet Nam will be made based on a thorough market assessment and consultations with ILO constituents, project implementation partners and other enterprise development programmes such as Better Work. From a quick scan of the Vietnamese economy, both export-oriented as well as domestic suppliers in sectors such as (sea)food processing, metal and machine manufacturing or the hospitality and tourism sector in services will be investigated. In addition to enterprise training using the standard SCORE methodology and wide dissemination of good practices through a social marketing campaign, SCORE Viet Nam will pilot activities using value chain analysis to address sector-wide problems constraining performance and creation of decent work. Lessons learnt from the FIP have shown that interventions at the enterprise-level can only have a limited impact if major problems affecting overall sector performance are not taken into consideration. For example, applied to the seafood processing sector, a SCORE value chain intervention will work with key stakeholders from the producer to the buyer to identify the underlying causes for excessive fluctuations i