The Tra Vinh provincial People's Committee and the Canadian Embassy in Vietnam awarded certificates of merit to collectives and individuals for their contributions to the project implementation. (Photo: VNA) Tra Vinh (VNA) – The People's Committee of the Mekong Delta province of Tra Vinh and the Canadian Embassy in Vietnam on November 23 summarised a Canada-funded project to support local small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and celebrated 22 years of bilateral cooperation.
Chairman of the Tra Vinh provincial People's Committee Le Van Han thanked the Canadian Government for its programmes and projects to support the province's development.
In 2014, Global Affairs Canada (GAC) - a department of the Canadian Government that manages Canada's diplomatic and consular relations, promotes Canadian international trade, and leads Canada's international development and humanitarian assistance - sponsored the SME Project in the context of that local SMEs were facing difficulties and challenges in accessing markets, land, finance and business development services while local infrastructure did not receive has sufficient investment.
The project has a total investment of 12.1 million CAD (8.83 million USD), including 11 million CAD from the Canadian Government’s grant and the remainder from the province’s counterpart capital.
Han said that over the past nine years, activities under the project have helped local SMEs to develop and enhance their competitiveness, expand trade opportunities, and contribute to the province's sustainable socio-economic development.
Tra Vinh province now has over 2,840 operating SMEs, doubling the number in 2015. Over 28% of the enterprises are owned by women and 6.8% are owned by Khmer ethnic minority people.
In addition, the project also carried out activities to promote innovation in SMEs, improve small-scale infrastructure works in 18 communes/towns across the province, and contribute to the improvement of the province's investment environment and provincial green index (PGI).
As of October 2023, nearly 30,000 local people benefited from the project, 33% of whom are women and 20.2% are people from ethnic minority groups. In the 2015 – 2023 period, the private enterprise sector in Tra Vinh province has created jobs for over 112,400 workers, 59% of whom are female, and 31% are Khmer ethnic workers.
Congratulating Tra Vinh for completing its commitments to sponsors, Canadian Ambassador to Vietnam Shawn Steil said that in the last 22 years, Tra Vinh has always been an important partner of Canada, and the relationship between the two sides has consistently maintained and more and more comprehensive.
The SME Project’s results will lay a solid foundation for Canada and Tra Vinh to continue cooperating and opening up new opportunities for trade exchange.
On this occasion, the Tra Vinh provincial People's Committee and the Canadian Embassy in Vietnam awarded certificates of merit to collectives and individuals for their contributions to the project implementation./.
