Vietnam's Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI) has partnered with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) to help Vietnamese small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) digitally transform and gain access to finance to adapt to the new business environment.
Enterprise Development Agency director under the MPI, Le Manh Hung, said SMEs are facing major obstacles to their post-pandemic recovery.
“Digital transformation and access to finance are prerequisites for SMEs to address new challenges, revive, expand business and production, and enhance competitiveness advantages,” Hung said.
As the enterprises face major issues such as lack of cost, infrastructure, organisational processes and expertise, the partners aim to assist with various resources.
SMEs may access digital information-based tools through digital.business.gov.vn and a2f.business.gov.vn.
The websites provide SMEs with tools, reports, and documents related to digital transformation and access to finance.
Currently, there are 785,000 SMEs in the country accounting for nearly 98 percent of the total enterprises, and contributing approximately 50 percent of gross domestic product (GDP).
“They can share, discuss their needs and seek suitable solutions for digital transformation and access to finance through service providers, financial firms, and credit institutions,” Hung said.
According to the government, nearly 400,000 SMEs have been provided with access to guidebooks on digital transformation last year. More than 600 firms have been evaluated for their readiness to transform under their collaborative project - USAID Linkages for Small and Medium Enterprises (LinkSME).
"Hopefully these efforts will be appropriate support functions to assist companies to comprehend the expansion and changing patterns of the local and international markets," Hung added.
Vietnam’s Ministry had recently created a digital economic consulting portal to assist small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in their digital transformations.
It has also launched a smart factory development project to train 100 Vietnamese experts and provide consultation to help 50 SMEs set up smart factories in 2022 and 2023.
The project is expected to help SMEs improve the provision of supporting products and meet the production requirements of large corporations.
