Private enterprises occupy most of the places in the list of Vietnam’s 500 largest companies compiled and released on Tuesday by the Vietnam Report Co. Private Vietnamese enterprises account for 44 percent of the 500 companies in the list. 40% are state companies with the rest being foreign businesses.

The state-run oil and gas giant PetroVietnam tops the list, titled 2013 VNR500, while Samsung Electronics Vietnam comes second.

The remainders of the top ten are all familiar faces: Petrolimex, EVN, Viettel, VNPT, Vietsovpetro, Vinacomin, and PV Oil.

This is the second year in a row Samsung Vietnam is enlisted in the VNR500. This year it jumped two places from the #4 rank in the 2012 VNR500.

The report author said state enterprises still play a leading role in the national economy as eight out of ten positions in the top ten are state-run groups or corporations.

But it is the private businesses who dominate the list. Private enterprises account for 44 percent of the 500 companies in the list, while the respective figures for state and foreign companies are more than 40 percent and more than 15 percent.

However, state enterprises account for more than 62 percent of the total revenues of those in the VNR500 list.

Remarkably, 160 businesses, or 32 percent, are newcomers. Most of them are private companies (40.4 percent).

Besides the VNR500, which consists of 500 largest companies of all sectors, Vietnam Report also released the list of 500 largest private companies in Vietnam. Private companies are defined as those where at least 51 percent stake is privately held.

Topping the list is the DOJI, followed by Vinamilk, Intimex, FPT, ACB, Techcombank, and Sacombank.

Vietnam Report also surveyed the CEOs of some major companies on the 2013 economic situation.

More than 62.3 percent of the respondents said their business results in 2013 are better than last year, while 16.4 percent said things are not much changed.

Only 21.3 percent of the surveyed executives expressed their dissatisfaction over the business results.

Most of the respondents meanwhile appeared to be upbeat about the 2014 outlook. More than 83.6 percent believed they will gain better results next year, while fewer than 5 percent said they are pessimistic about business in 2014.