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 of technology, communications and marketing, e-commerce or AI, blockchain, accounts for nearly 100%.
Vietnam is increasingly demonstrating its determination to associate national development with the SDGs through integrating these goals into national development activities and policies.
In that context, startups and small and medium-sized enterprises are considered indispensable.
The Project Office “Support Innovative Startup Ecosystem in Vietnam Until 2025”, of the Ministry of Science and Technology, in coordination with Start-up Vietnam Foundation, Innovation Connection Platform BambuUP, MSD Vietnam and MSD United Way Vietnam, have just conducted a survey on innovation and entrepreneurship towards sustainable development goals and lessons learned from practice for Vietnam.
The survey was conducted on 153 businesses. The results show that the three most prominent goals chosen by businesses include SDG8: job creation and sustainable economic growth (57%); SDG12: sustainable consumption and production (39.66%) and SDG4: quality education (31.03%).
In addition, 100% of businesses expressed a desire to contribute to sustainable corporate values, 63.79% aimed to promote initiatives and promote innovation, while half of these businesses prioritised responding to customer and market needs.
The above data shows the current situation of businesses that are gradually tending to be more proactive in recognising and being more responsible for environmental and social issues.
More than 82.76% of businesses choose to integrate SDGs into their business activities by taking concrete actions to incorporate sustainability into their core strategies and adjust their products and services according to principles that support sustainable development.
This underlines their true dedication in contributing to a more sustainable future, demonstrating a comprehensive and deep commitment to responsible business practices and sustainable development.
However, the implementation of these goals still faces certain difficulties.
More than 74.14% of businesses reflected that they are experiencing financial 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 Vietnam continue to learn from international experiences like other countries in the OECD by promoting the use of industrial policy to encourage entrepreneurs to commit to the SDGs and provide more accessible information on the regulatory framework for businesses.
Additional recommendations include introducing a mandatory compliance regime, requiring businesses to report information on the impact of business activities on the environment and society.
At the same time, the effort should implement supporting policies, loans or equity investments to generally support businesses' sustainable initiatives and help start-ups and small and medium-sized enterprises have a clear direction in implementation of the SDGs./.
VNA
