In the meeting between the Prime Minister and the Vietnam Association of Small and Medium Enterprises, Mr. Pham Van Triem – Chairman of the Association of Small and Medium Enterprises of BR-VT province gave many enthusiastic and necessary opinions for the development of the small and medium business community in the difficult times.
(BRVT-SME) Hanoi on the afternoon of July 6th, 2023 Prime Minister – Mr. Pham Minh Chinh hosted a conference between the Government Committee and the Executive Board of the Vietnam Small and Medium Enterprises Association (SME) on the situation activities of the association and the SME business community. solutions to overcome difficulties for businesses. Also attending were Deputy Prime Minister – Mr. Le Minh Khai.
Utterance at the meeting, Prime Minister – Mr. Pham Minh Chinh emphasized that recently, the country’s socio-economic situation has seen many positive changes in all aspects, along with difficulties and related to the activities of the Vietnam Association of Small and Medium Enterprises; affirming that the Government and functional agencies always accompany the Association, the small and medium business community; clearly, the domestic situation, besides advantages, also has difficulties and challenges; Therefore, we must accompany to overcome difficulties and challenges with the spirit of “true companionship”, “do it all the way”.
Nowadays businesses want to contribute to the development of the country. Currently, the Government is giving priority to growth because it has controlled inflation, focusing on three motivations: consumption, investment, and export. Recently, problems, businesses proposed to the Government and relevant agencies to solve with the spirit of focusing and key points.
The Prime Minister suggested the spirit of urgent working, going straight to the problem, listening to opinions and giving suggestions to each other, must be able to produce a product “weigh, measure, count”, creating a lot of material wealth for the people.
Mr. Pham Van Triem – Chairman of the Association of Small and Medium Enterprises of BR-VT province proposed to the Prime Minister many urgent issues
Participating and speaking at the meeting, Mr. Pham Van Triem – Chairman of the Association of Small and Medium Enterprises of BR-VT province highly appreciated the Government’s efforts in supporting businesses in recent years. In 2018, the Government issued Decree 34/2018/ND-CP on the establishment, organization and operation of the Credit Guarantee Fund (Credit Credit Fund) for small and medium enterprises. In 2019, the Government issued Decree No. 55/2019/ND-CP detailing legal support activities for small and medium enterprises; responsibilities of ministries, ministerial-level agencies, provincial-level local authorities, other agencies, organizations and individuals involved in legal support for small and medium-sized enterprises. In 2021, the Government issued Decree No. 80/2021/ND-CP of the Government detailing and guiding the implementation of a number of articles of the Law on Supporting Small and Medium Enterprises. However, according to Mr. Triem, these Resolutions and Decrees have not really come to life, and have not had a positive impact on the business community. Most recently, the Prime Minister issued Decision No. 345/QD-TTg of the Prime Minister: Approving the Project “Improving the quality and efficiency of legal support for businesses in the 2021-2030 period”. This is a decision to improve the quality and efficiency of legal and other support work for businesses. Mr. Triem hopes that the ministries and localities will try to activate the Prime Minister’s decision. Otherwise, it will return like other decrees, the business community will not benefit from the policies of the Prime Minister as well as the Government.
Another issue, Mr. Triem suggested that banks should reduce interest rates because banks are also businesses. In general, when the business community is still facing difficulties, the bank is a business but reports a profit of thousands of billion dong. Mr. Triem thinks it is unfair to the general competition of the business community.
The third issue, Mr. Triem suggested that the Prime Minister reactivate with localities on the establishment and operation of the Credit Guarantee Fund. The fund is the most practical source for the business community, especially the small and medium-sized business community because many businesses do not have assets, but if they have activities that are beneficial in the future for businesses, are beneficial to the locality, and are beneficial to society, they should have the opportunity to get loans for development. Localities should operate this Fund, not because of fear of risks, fear of difficult businesses, but abandon the form of the Fund in favor of the business community. Regulations on the establishment of the Fund have existed for many years, but most provinces have not been able to implement it. Mr. Triem wishes that in this difficult time, the Fund should be re-operated because this is the most practical job for businesses.
The fourth issue, Mr. Triem suggested that recently, the Prime Minister has directed the construction of many major traffic routes such as Ring Road 3, Ring Road 4 and 4 highways. On this occasion, inagurate two highways in Nha Trang and Phan Thiet. Mr. Triem suggested to the Prime Minister that the proposal of the Chairman of the Vietnam Small and Medium Enterprises Association should dedicate 30% of the workload of large traffic projects, especially newly started projects, to small and medium enterprises. Mr. Triem calculated that with synergy, the small and medium business community would be able to carry out the workload if assigned by the Prime Minister. It is 30% of this workload that will create jobs for employees of the small and medium business community and create resilience during this difficult time for the business community. At this point, the chain of links in the construction industry will be the key industry in the implementation of projects.
Another issue, Mr. Triem suggested that the Government should have a mechanism for the headquarters and working offices of local business associations. The main office is the place to prove the association is doing well or not, so there should be a priority mechanism. However, at present, there are no association offices from central to provincial levels. As the Association of Small and Medium Enterprises of the province BR-VT has also proposed to the Provincial People’s Committee and supported by the Chairman of the Provincial People’s Committee, but the mechanism is still unknown, so the province is studying more.
In the other side, according to the Vietnam Association of Small and Medium Enterprises, information from the meeting, currently, orders are decreasing, output is difficult, raw materials and fuel costs are still high, electricity has increased in price (the phenomenon of power cut in a northern province creates an unstable psychology for many manufacturing enterprises), difficulty in accessing capital… a lot of difficult challenges are besieging Vietnamese enterprises, especially in the manufacturing sector.
The worrying thing is the current difficulties can completely cause businesses to collapse before they have a chance to recover. What’s even more dangerous is that when businesses “fall down”, workers will have no jobs and income, this is a problem of social security and social safety.
On that basis, the Association recommends: the need for loans is heating up day by day and is an urgent issue that needs to be resolved immediately to meet production and business activities such as purchasing equipment and machinery, supplementing working capital and other investment fields of enterprises; propose to establish at the central level a special working group to promote the implementation of policies to support enterprises, led by the Government leader, the Minister of Planning and Investment and the Minister of Finance as the deputy group, members are representatives of ministries, branches, central representative organizations of enterprises and a number of experts in economics and law. Review and immediately remove a number of provisions in the legal system that are still inappropriate, out of step with reality, causing difficulties in the implementation and disbursement of investment capital, especially public investment capital, to quickly create demand for the domestic market to offset the decline of the world market.
Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh listened to the report of the Association of Small and Medium Enterprises on the activities implemented in the past time. The report highlighted the challenges that SMEs are facing, including capital constraints, poor competitiveness, complicated administrative processes, and lack of qualified human resources. In particular, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has caused significant negative impacts on small and medium enterprises.
In this context, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh has shown the Government’s interest and commitment to the development of SMEs. The Prime Minister emphasized the importance of removing difficulties and creating favorable conditions for SMEs to develop sustainably and contribute to the national economy.
The Prime Minister also assigned the Executive Committee of the Association of Small and Medium Enterprises to work closely with relevant agencies to find specific solutions and implement improvements to promote SME business.
The Prime Minister asked to strengthen administrative reform, reduce unreasonable regulations and increase transparency in administrative procedures related to businesses. In addition, the Prime Minister also emphasized the role of education and training in ensuring quality human resources for SMEs.
(synthesized BRVT-SME)