This paper examines the technical efficiency of small-scale manufacturing enterprises in Vietnam. The research uses primary data from a survey from June, 2019 to August, 2019 with 321 observations of six subsectors, including Textile, Garment; Building materials; Vegetable, Fruit and Bulb; Manufacture of Steel; Furniture Manufacturing and Food Processing. The research’s results show that the mean technical efficiency was 71.26 percent. However, there are considerable differences between sub-sectors ranging from 55.97 percent to 95.97 percent. The above mentioned results indicate that with the same level of inputs, Vietnamese small size enterprises can increase the present level of output by 44.03 percent; 38.05 percent; 30.92 percent; 26.07 percent; 21.05 percent and 4.08 percent for the sectors of Food Processing, Building Material; Textile, Garment; Vegetable, Fruit and Bulb; Manufacture of Steel and Furniture Manufacturing, respectively. The estimated results further suggest that manufacturing small-scale enterprise in Vietnam should improve their technology, labor quality and the initiative of input materials, especially, the sectors of Textile, Garment; Building Materials and Food Processing in order to move the production frontier upward as their technical efficiency are maintaining at low level.

This research applies a Vector error correction model to investigate the long-run and short-run effects of gross domestic product (GDP), energy consumption, foreign direct investment (FDI), and trade openness on CO₂ emissions. The findings indicate that in the long run, GDP growth per capita has a negative influence on CO₂ emission. Energy consumption and trade openness negatively affect CO₂ emission. The foreign direct investment as the percentage of GDP in a long time has a positive relationship with CO₂ emission. Furthermore, the short-run GDP per capita affects CO₂ -emission with two-year lags and energy consumption influences CO2 emission with a one-year lag. These observations have many implications for policy-makers in issuing the FDI policy in Vietnam in recent times and considering the impact of economic development on protecting the sustainable growth in the long-run.