Small- and medium–sized enterprises (SMEs) are advised to identify their difficulties in the context of rapid international integration in order to develop in a sustainable manner, heard a forum held in Hanoi on May 9.

Small- and medium-sized enterprises need to identify their problems
to raise solutions for sustainable development (Photo: nhadautu.vn)

The forum was held by the Centre for Support of SMEs in the North (TAC) under the Ministry of Planning and Investment’s Department of Enterprise Development and Bizen Vietnam Joint Stock Company.

Le Van Khuong, Director of the Centre for Support of SMEs in the North (TAC) under the Ministry of Planning and Investment’s Department of Enterprise Development, said that in today’s volatile business environment, SMEs encountered various difficulties because of their modest scales.

He said as SMEs have their own problems and difficulties, identifying their weakness is important to create solutions for them towards sustainable development.

Khuong said focus should be placed on providing training to SMEs to enhance their capacity and optimise resources.

Quang Minh, chairman of Bizen Vietnam said the forum was a part of BKTalk – a platform where SMEs could discuss with experts to identify their difficulties and find measures for development. BKTalk also provides training and consultancy about corporate governance for SMEs.

Participating experts said SMEs encountered with problems related to accessing banking credit, tax reporting, transparency in accounting, human resource management and building brands.

According to the Ministry of Finance’s statistics, Vietnam has more than 600,000 firms, nearly 500,000 of them private firms with 96 percent of being small and micro scales.

SMEs created 1.2 million jobs and contributed more than 40 percent of gross domestic product.

Recently, the ministry proposed cutting corporate income tax rates on small and micro businesses from the current 20 percent to 15-17 percent. This aims to promote the development of SMEs so the country could have one million firms by 2020, as set by the Government.