Recently, the National Government has continuously issued many policies to support small-and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), of which the most effective include tax exemption and reduction policies. However, some policies to support businesses in accessing capital have not yet achieved the desired effect, Ms. Trinh Thi Huong, Deputy Director of the Department of Enterprise Development under the Ministry of Planning and Investment, said at the conference on Wednesday.

Ms. Trinh Thi Huong, Deputy Director of the Department of Enterprise Development under the Ministry of Planning and Investment delivering her opening speech at the conference. Photo: M.Q

The conference was jointly held in Da Nang by the Viet Nam Association of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises, the Department of Enterprise Development, and the U.S. Agency for International Development, to discuss solutions to increase the capital absorptive capacity for enterprises in the context of low credit growth and global and domestic economic headwinds.

Themed "Access to Capital - Clearing Bottlenecks", the conference was part of the Improving Private Sector Competitiveness (IPSC) project funded by USAID.

Despite accounting for 98% of the country’s enterprises, SMEs’ performance is still constrained by many factors, including lack of credit accessibility which is seen as the major obstacle to the sustainable development of SMEs. Therefore, one of the most important measures to support SMEs is to improve their access to credit, Ms Huong emphasised.

Ms. Tran Thanh Thuy, Head of Enterprise Support Department - SME Development Fund under the Ministry of Planning and Investment, informed that the fund's activities to support SMEs included direct loans, indirect loans, capital grants and capacity improvement support.

The beneficiaries are small and medium-sized creative startups, and small and medium-sized enterprises participating in industry linkage clusters and value chains, with lending interest rates equal to 80% of the lowest interest rate of commercial banks (determined on the basis of comparing interest rates of 4 State-owned commercial banks).

During the conference, businesses asked many questions about policies and regulations; capacity to access and absorb capital of SMEs; and capital access process of the SME Development Fund and commercial banks.

Mr. Tran Minh Dong, Vice Chairman of the Da Nang Association of SMEs, and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Viettronimex JSC, said that SMEs still faced difficulties in accessing to capital for SMEs in Da Nang.

Therefore, Mr. Dong proposed that the Department of Enterprise Development advise and coordinate with relevant agencies to have more support programmes so that businesses can access capital better and be informed about policies more fully.

Reporting by M.QUE - Translating by M.DUNG