The Ministry of Science and Technology has announced a list of 65Vietnamese enterprises that have been granted national quality awards.

Ofthem, 19 firms will receive gold awards, including Can Tho Sugar JointStock Company, Thanh Hoa Medical Materials Equipment Joint StockCompany, Trafaco Joint Stock Company and Information Technology of theCentral Power Corporation.

The remainder of the firms will receive silver awards.

The award ceremony will take place in Hanoi on March 22.

NgoQuy Viet, Director General of the ministry's Directorate for Standards,Metrology and Quality, said the awardees performed excellently inmaintaining and improving quality systems, and in contributing toprovincial and national economy.

He also said in difficultconditions, enterprises needed to care about boosting productivity,technology and the quality of services and products.

The nationalquality awards will partly help the firms to take a relook atthemselves to improve the quality of their services and products, Vietadded.

Established in 2009, the awards are granted by the PrimeMinister, and are part of a system of the International Asia-PacificQuality Awards of the Asia-Pacific Quality Organisation.

Thefirms are judged on seven criteria of leadership, strategic planning,customer service and market focus and measurement, as well as knowledgemanagement, workforce focus and process management and results.-VNA