U.S. commits to linking Vietnamese SMEs to global chain

At the U.S. - ASEAN Business Council’s (USABC) workshop recently held in Hai Phong city on elevating small and medium businesses into industrial revolution 4.0 and inclusive global value chains, U.S. Ambassador to Vietnam Daniel J. Kritenbrink stated that these companies are leveraging industrial revolution 4.0 technologies to help Vietnamese companies succeed.

One typical example is General Electric’s (GE) “brilliant” factory in Hai Phong, one of GE’s most advanced manufacturing facilities, where GE’s long-term partnerships with local Vietnamese suppliers are strongly developed.

GE supports its Vietnamese partners through sharing how to improve their management capabilities and use advanced technology. 

Twenty percent of GE’s manufacturing inputs are sourced from local Vietnamese suppliers. This firm hopes to raise that number even higher.

According to Vice Chairman of Haiphong People’s Committee Le Khac Nam, the fourth industrial revolution is happening stronger than ever before with the breakthrough of technologies. Utilizing these resources could create added value as well as radically transform the economy, especially when Vietnam has integrated deeper into the world with a number of free trade agreements signed with other nations and organizations.

However, Nam said that the challenges are not less because a large number of enterprises in Hai Phong in particular and in the north of Vietnam, in general, have not been familiar with the international trade. They still lack language capability, vision and the ability to assign international labor.

According to Daniel J. Kritenbrink, the U.S. is committed to working with Vietnam to help Vietnamese small and medium enterprises adapt to the modern global economy.

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) early this October awarded the new five-year $22 million linkages for small and medium enterprises (LinkSME) project to International Executive Service Corps. 

LinkSME aims to improve and expand the supplier-buyer relationships between Vietnamese and foreign firms. This project will raise productivity and increase Vietnam’s capacity to supply products to larger companies both inside and outside Vietnam. 

Foreign firms will reap efficiency and benefits from increased local outsourcing. LinkSME will facilitate Vietnamese entrepreneurs to integrate into the global value chain, pursue new opportunities and provide new jobs for their communities.