VietNamNet Bridge – Under the Government's newly issued
Resolution 02, some small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) no longer
qualify for preferential policies, which has left them struggling to pay debts
and continue production, the chairman of HCM City's District 8 Business
Association said.
Speaking at a meeting held on
March 27, by the city's Union of Business Associations in collaboration with
Business Association of HCM City's District 10, Tran Ngoc Duong said Resolution
02 re-defined SMEs as companies with under 200 employees and an annual turnover
of VND20 billion (US$962,000) or less.
"Under this resolution, most
enterprises in District 8 would no longer be classified as SMEs since their
annual turnover is higher than VND20 billion," he said.
Preferential policies such as
bank loans and tax exemptions would not be available to companies that are no
longer considered SMEs.
Tran Ngoc Dung, chairman of the
Business Association of HCM City's District 8, said the resolution was issued
to provide a number of solutions to relieve problems associated with business
production, market support and bad debts.
Representatives of Maseco, Gia
Dinh Textile and Garment and Sai Gon 3 Garment Joint Stock Co all agreed that
the new resolution would create problems for them.
Le Chi Hieu, deputy chairman of
the HCM City Real Estate Association, said the Ministry of Finance, which has
implemented guidelines on the resolution via Circular 16, should revise the
maximum turnover figure of VND20 billion.
He said the figure was too small
because the dong had been devalued.
Business expectations
Speaking at the meeting, Van Duc
Muoi, chairman of the HCM City Food and Foodstuff Association (Vissan), said
there should be more value-added tax reductions and payment exemptions because
enterprises were still mired in debts.
This would stimulate consumer
demand, reduce inventories and increase business competitiveness, he added.
Muoi also said that lending rates
were too high. Most companies were relying on their own resources to survive,
waiting for a brighter day in the future.
Tran Viet Anh, vice chairman of
the HCM City Rubber and Plastics Association, said many companies had closed
last year and existing ones were still short of capital.
Company representatives at the
meeting also complained about high interest rates as well as cumbersome
bank-loan procedures.
However, Nguyen Tien Quang,
director of Phu Tho Branch's Vietcombank in District 10, said his bank had
offered three support packages with preferential interest rates for SMEs.
They include a VND30 trillion
($1.44 billion) loan at an interest rate of 7.5-8 per cent, a loan worth $700
million with an interest rate of 3.8 per cent, and another at VND5 trillion
($240.3 million) with an interest rate of 11 per cent.
The interest rate at Vietcombank
for short-term loans is 12-12.5 per cent, and for medium- and long-term loans
13 per cent per year.
Source: VNS
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