Demark will provide 23 million USD in non-refundable aid to help develop Vietnamese businesses within the framework of the Business Sector Programme Support (BSPS) and Private Sector Development Programme (PS).

A cooperation agreement to support the development of Vietnamese businesses in the 2011-2013 period, which serves as a legal basis for Vietnam to receive the aid, was signed in Hanoi on Dec. 21 by Deputy Minister of Planning and Investment Cao Viet Sinh and Danish Ambassador to Vietnam John Nielsen.

Addressing the ceremony, John Nielsen said the signing of the agreement will make an important contribution to helping Vietnam carry out the modernisation and industrialisation process as well as economic development after joining the World Trade Organisation.

With the aim of enhancing the competitiveness of Vietnamese non-state businesses, looking to growth, export and job generation, the BSPS PS programme will continue to support Vietnam’s economic development with the private sector playing the key role.

It will also help the application of new technologies in small- and medium-sized enterprises (SME), improve the national system of labour safety and hygiene as well as raise public awareness about SME acitivity through economic research.

Under the programme, the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs and the Central Institute for Economic Management (CIEM) have been chosen as the main partners to promote the results gained in the cooperation process with Denmark in the 2005-2010 period./.