A law for SMEs needed: Chamber of Commerce

HCM City (VNA) – All supporting policies for small-and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), which account for more than 95 percent of the total Vietnamese enterprises, should be included under one law.

Therefore, it will be easier for enterprises to access and benefit from these policies, Nguyen Hoa Cuong, Deputy Director of the Ministry of Planning and Investment's Enterprise Development Agency, said at a recent meeting in HCM City.

According to the deputy director, supporting policies for SMEs are scattered in many different documents, which makes it hard for enterprises to search for support policies.

Tran Ngoc Liem, Deputy Director of the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) in HCM City said SMEs in Vietnam had stated their role in the country's economy by contributing more than 40 percent to the gross domestic product (GDP), while attracting more than 50 percent of the total labourers.

"Therefore, supporting SMEs is regenerating development for the economy," he added.

ASEAN countries including Vietnam have built and approved the ASEAN Strategic Action Plan for SME Development 2016-2020.

The Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation (APEC) has also strived to eliminate trade barriers for SMEs in the Asia-Pacific region and help enterprises utilise new trade opportunities to integrate into the global value chain.

To support SMEs, Hoang Van Son, representative of the VNC Law office, said at the meeting that administrative procedure reforms should be prioritised as many enterprises faced complicated regulations.

SMEs need simpler accounting document sets, creating favourable conditions for investment bids, Son said, and added that fees and levies should be reduced to lessen burdens for businesses.

Surveys among some SMEs revealed that most of enterprises have just focussed on production, business, tax and customs, while paying less attention to market research, marketing, and building an enterprise culture.

Therefore, related agencies should provide more market information to the SME community and support them in trade promotion, so that enterprises could build a stable development strategy and enhance their competitive capacity, Nguyen Ngoc Tuan, Vice Chairman of the Dong Nai Import and Export Association, said.

He said SMEs had to face challenges in production and fixed asset investment.

In addition, SMEs mainly have weak financial sources and have not received investment incentives in industrial parks as well as in registration into specialised industrial complexes.-VNA