Vietnam Issues Investment Incentives for SMEs
As the outbreak of COVID-19 hampers business activity, Vietnam introduced Decree No. 37/2020/ND-CP (Decree 37) on March 30 to update the list of sectors and industries access to investment incentives under Decree 118/2015/ND-CP. The move underlines the government’s efforts to support businesses and particularly small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) affected by COVID-19.
Decree 37 will take effect on May 15.
The regulation expands the list of business lines eligible for investment incentives. This includes four types of SME business lines which are:
- Small and mediums sized enterprises (SMEs) supply chains;
- Business incubators for SMEs,
- Technical support facilities for SMEs; and
- Co-working spaces of SMEs.
The aforementioned businesses will now be eligible for import duty exemptions on fixed assets as well as other exemptions based on location.
SMEs continue to play a major role in Vietnam, accounting for 98 percent of all enterprises, 40 percent of GDP, and 50 percent of employment or 1.2 million jobs. As per the Ministry of Finance, Vietnam has more than 600,000 firms, with nearly 500,000 private and 96 percent being small and micro-enterprises.
However, SMEs continue to face problems such as access to finance, market access, and competition with foreign firms. We highlight three issues faced by SMEs below.
Access to finance
Credit access is a major concern for the Vietnamese SMEs. Banks providing commercial loans prefer to allocate their resources to larger firms rather than SMEs. According to banks, higher default risks, lack of financial transparency, and lack of assets for a mortgage are the major factors for not providing loans to SMEs. SMEs have to increase transparency and introduce newer production technologies, to reduce risks and increase efficiency to increase their chances of acquiring commercial loans.
Global supply chains
A study by the International Finance Corporation shows that only 21 percent of Vietnamese SMEs are linked with global supply chains, much lower than 30 percent and 46 percent in Thailand and Malaysia respectively. Integrating further with global supply chains in terms of procurement, operations, and sales will allow firms to manage competition, reduce risks, and reduce production costs, which currently is 20 percent higher than those of neighboring countries, such as Thailand and China.
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This article is produced by Vietnam Briefing, a premium source of information for investors looking to set up and conduct business in Vietnam. The site is a publishing arm of Dezan Shira & Associates, a leading foreign investment consultancy in Asia with over 27 years of experience assisting businesses with market entry, site selection, legal, tax, accounting, HR and payroll services throughout the region.
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