The Ministry of Science and Technology on Dec. 26 awarded national quality awards to 96 Vietnamese enterprises.

Of those, 11 received gold awards and the remainder silver.

The same day, the International Asia-Pacific Quality Awards were presented to Vietnamese joint-stock companies Viglacera Ha Long from Quang Ninh Province, Phu Nhuan Jewellery from HCM City and Long Hau from Long An province.

Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Sinh Hung said: "Today's honourees have demonstrated their ever-improving leadership capacity, the competency of their workforce, as well as the trust of their customers."

He said the hopes the awards willd help promote Vietnamese brands both here and abroad.

Hung said local firms are now placing greater emphasis on quality to enhance their competitiveness internationally.

The Vietnamese awards are based on the US’s Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Awards, which were established in 1987 and designed to recognise performance excellence of US organisations.

There were 173 nominees for this year's Vietnamese awards. Firms were judged on seven areas – leadership, strategic planning, customer and market focus, measurement, knowledge management, workforce focus, process management, and results./.