Vietnam's small and medium enterprises face difficulties

Results of administrative and institutional reforms have helped to reduce official costs, especially in taxation and customs, making a positive impact on the business environment.

However, some compliance costs remain high, overlapping and complex, wasting time and cost of the business. The cost of accessing some public services such as certification, land, construction and credit has not improved.

In areas that enterprises are regularly inspected, such as taxation, customs, environmental impact assessment, fire protection, etc, enterprises also have to pay unofficial fees.

High production cost will escalate product cost, reducing the competitiveness of the business and affecting consumers' benefits.

The reason for the problems is mainly driven from the officers' irresponsibility and lack of guidance.

Regarding the businesses, some of them appear not cognizant enough of market economy and lack of competitiveness.

If the unofficial costs are not pushed back, it will cause many difficulties for the business and reduce the competitiveness of enterprises.

In order to solve this problem, it is necessary for both state agencies and enterprises to join hands and find out appropriate solutions.

The association recommends that businesses should build up habits of law observation, respect business ethics and culture and improve management performance.

The association also wants large corporations and FDI enterprises to support SMEs in sharing experiences, technology transfer, consumption and to help them participate deeper into the value chains.