The legal framework on the establishment and development of micro finance mechanism has been set up. Credit guarantee funds, which aim to help SMEs access bank loans, have been established in many provinces and cities. Meanwhile, SMEs have been allowed to delay the corporate income tax payment, so that they can arrange capital for maintaining production. However, the policies have not helped much.
According to the General Statistics Office (GSO), by September 2011, more than 500,000 SMEs had registered their operation, accounting for 98 percent of the total enterprises in the national economy.
Also according to GSO, the total capital registered by SMEs has reached 121 billion dollars. The enterprises contribute 40 percent to the GDP every year, 33 percent to the industrial production and 30 percent of the total export value.
SMEs have not only been making a great contribution to the development of the national economy, but have also generated more jobs. The enterprises are now hiring more than 50 percent of the total laborers in the society.
Meanwhile, the enterprises have been facing big difficulties which come from all sides. The economic downturn has dealt a strong blow on them, leading to the dissolution of 50,000 SMEs (9 percent) in 2011. One of the biggest reasons behind the collapse is the inability to access bank loans. Meanwhile, credit guarantee funds, described as the “concomitant” of SMEs, have not been brought into play.
According to the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry VCCI, despite the high lending interest rates in 2011, 75 percent of businesses still wanted to seek bank loans. However, very few of them could borrow money from the official channel.
In such conditions, the government has promulgated a lot of finance policies to support businesses. However, the support has not reached out to the SMEs that needed support.
The latest report by the State Bank of Vietnam has pointed out that only 30 percent of SMEs can access commercial bank loans.
In principle, businesses can contact the Vietnam Development Bank (VDB) for the help to access the loans. However, the bank’s report has said that by December 24, 2010, the bank had accepted to guarantee for the loans worth 15 billion dong. The sum of 15 billion dong clearly makes nothing if compared with the huge number of 500,000 SMEs.
By the end of 2011, credit guarantee funds had been set up in only 11 out of 63 provinces and cities nationwide. Meanwhile, the existing funds still cannot help businesses much.
In general, the credit institutions and credit guarantee funds in Vietnam are few in quantity and weak in quality. The total assets of five institutions which have finance activities are must 1494 billion dong, which means that the capability of giving financial support to SMEs remains modest.
Tran Buu Long, Deputy Director of the HCM City Credit Guarantee Fund for SMEs, has admitted that the fund has not brought high efficiency. Established in 2008, but the fund only began its official operation in late 2009. Meanwhile, during its operation, it has been facing the economic recession.
A national fund for the science and technology development has also been set up, in charge of providing parts of necessary expenses to SMEs to help them renovate technologies. .However, the fund is really too far away to access.
Source: Dien dan DN
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