On Tuesday, an international seminar took place in Da Nang to discuss ways to further develop the city’s economic sector by ensuring the efficient operation of cooperatives and social enterprises. 

The event was jointly organised by the Da Nang University of Economics (DEU) and South Korea’s Sungkonghoe University.

Viet Nam is now home to 200 social enterprises, 48% of them actively involved in supplying environmentally-friendly products and services. 

Fitting solar panels made at a local social enterprise

Over recent years, Da Nang’s social enterprises have made significant contributions to the sustainable development of the local economy.  In particular, they have raised the incomes of their employees and created more employment opportunities for job seekers in order to ensure greater social stability.

At the seminar, experts stressed the urgent need to perfect a basic legal framework regarding cooperatives and collectives.  More effective measures should be taken to improve the professional skills of the management staff at local cooperatives.  Special attention should also be paid to assisting local cooperatives to renew their production activities and boost their infrastructure development.  In addition, a focus should be on helping them to access preferential policies regarding taxes, land-use rights and loans.

Doctor of Philosophy Nguyen Thi Thuy from the DUE suggested that social enterprises should access loans from credit guarantee schemes of the national government and domestic and international charitable organisations.