In Da Nang, the Trade Promotion Department under the Ministry of Industry and Trade om Friday announced the results of the first round of funding and call for the submission of the second round of funding proposals, within the framework of the Innovation and Competitiveness Grant Facility (ICG Facility) of SwissTrade programme the initial outcome of component 3. This aims to strengthen the export-related services of Dynamic Business Support Organizations (BSOs by providing small grant projects for implementation.

Illustrative image (DNO)

Accordingly, the ICG programme was launched in July 2022, through the process of selection and interviewing, the Viet Nam Trade Policy and Export Promotion Project Management Board, the Trade Promotion Department and experts have selected 5 projects that were eligible for the first funding from the ICG programme.

They were the Vietnam Textile and Apparel Association in collaboration with MVV Education Joint Stock Company with the proposed project "Intensive consulting programme applying technology to improve the efficiency of export competitiveness for small and medium-sized enterprises inside and outside the textile and garment industry in Viet Nam’; Centre for Robust Inference in a Digital Economy (RIDE) with the proposal ‘Digital assistant to guide physical and electronic labeling for Vietnamese food exported to the EU market’;  the Ha Noi Young Business Association collaborating with Smart Hub Joint Stock Company with ‘Smart export of Vietnamese food and beverage (TASTY Viet Nam); Viet Nam Handicraft Export Association with ‘Promoting green trade through digital transformation’; Technology Business Incubation Centre under the University of Technology (Viet Nam National University, Ho Chi Minh City) in collaboration with MIDEAS Technology Joint Stock Company with the proposed project ‘Solution of intelligent virtual assistants that answer automatically for the Trade Promotion Agency and trade promotion enterprises’.

It is known that in addition to receiving financial support for implementation, business support organisations will be enhanced in capacity to improve services provided to small and medium-sized enterprises to increase exports, making an important contribution to creating breakthroughs in export promotion in Viet Nam.

As for funding the second round of ICG programme, entrants are recommended to submit dossiers of interest and preliminary proposals from May 16 to June 16.

The results of the selection of subprojects eligible for funding according to the criteria of the ICG programme are expected to be announced in September 2023.

Reporting by VAN HOANG - Translating by A.THU