Young startups in Da Lat join hands to open a store to introduce local OCOP products. (Photo: thuonghieutruyenthong.vn) In particular, the number of businesses in the fields oftechnology, communications and marketing, e-commerce or AI, blockchain,accounts for nearly 100%.
Vietnam is increasingly demonstrating its determination toassociate national development with the SDGs through integrating these goalsinto national development activities and policies.
In that context, startups and small and medium-sized enterprisesare considered indispensable.
The Project Office “Support Innovative Startup Ecosystem in VietnamUntil 2025”, of the Ministry of Science and Technology, in coordination withStart-up Vietnam Foundation, Innovation Connection Platform BambuUP, MSD Vietnamand MSD United Way Vietnam, have just conducted a survey on innovation andentrepreneurship towards sustainable development goals and lessons learned frompractice for Vietnam.
The survey was conducted on 153 businesses. The results show thatthe three most prominent goals chosen by businesses include SDG8: job creationand sustainable economic growth (57%); SDG12: sustainable consumption andproduction (39.66%) and SDG4: quality education (31.03%).
In addition, 100% of businesses expressed a desire to contributeto sustainable corporate values, 63.79% aimed to promote initiatives andpromote innovation, while half of these businesses prioritised responding tocustomer and market needs.
The above data shows the current situation of businesses that aregradually tending to be more proactive in recognising and being moreresponsible for environmental and social issues.
More than 82.76% of businesses choose to integrate SDGs into theirbusiness activities by taking concrete actions to incorporate sustainabilityinto their core strategies and adjust their products and services according toprinciples that support sustainable development.
This underlines their true dedication in contributing to a moresustainable future, demonstrating a comprehensive and deep commitment toresponsible business practices and sustainable development.
However, the implementation of these goals still faces certaindifficulties.
More than 74.14% of businesses reflected that they are experiencingfinancial problems, 36.21% of businesses have human resource problems and 37.93%of entities find it difficult to balance SDGs with profit goals.
To overcome the above problems, the survey also recommends that Vietnamcontinue to learn from international experiences like other countries in theOECD by promoting the use of industrial policy to encourage entrepreneurs tocommit to the SDGs and provide more accessible information on the regulatoryframework for businesses.
Additional recommendations include introducing a mandatorycompliance regime, requiring businesses to report information on the impact ofbusiness activities on the environment and society.
At the same time, the effort should implement supporting policies,loans or equity investments to generally support businesses' sustainableinitiatives and help start-ups and small and medium-sized enterprises have aclear direction in implementation of the SDGs./.
VNA
