Creating conditions for businesses to stabilize and develop
Opening the dialogue session, Chairman of the City People's Committee Vu Dai Thang emphasized that the city always pays deep attention to perfecting mechanisms and policies to support the small and medium-sized business community - a dynamic and populous area, playing an important role in creating jobs, ensuring livelihoods for people and making practical contributions to the capital's economic growth over the years.
The city wishes to directly listen to difficulties, obstacles, and recommendations from associations and the small and medium-sized business community, to jointly find solutions to remove obstacles and create conditions for businesses to stabilize and develop in the current context" - Chairman of the City People's Committee stated clearly.
Mr. Vu Dai Thang affirmed that, with a frank and receptive spirit, city leaders and departments and branches are ready to exchange and answer issues under their authority right at the conference; and at the same time, record and summarize recommendations to continue to improve and supplement policies in the coming time, especially when the production and business context still has many fluctuations.
Establish a unified focal point for receiving and processing petitions
At the conference, Ms. Nguyen Minh Thu - Deputy Secretary General of the Hanoi Association of Small and Medium Enterprises, Deputy Director of the APEC Business Research and Training Institute proposed that the city continue to maintain and improve the effectiveness of dialogue with businesses; establish a unified focal point for receiving and processing recommendations according to the inter-agency mechanism;
Along with that, promote administrative procedure reform, reduce compliance time and costs for businesses; implement support policies in a practical, accessible, and responsive direction; promote the role of business associations in connecting and implementing practice.
The Hanoi Association of Small and Medium Enterprises hopes to continue to receive more attention, companionship and stronger support from the City so that it can recover quickly, develop sustainably and contribute more to the capital's economic growth" - Ms. Nguyen Minh Thu wished.
Chronic" problem of small and medium-sized enterprises
Speaking at the conference, Vice Chairman cum General Secretary of the Hanoi Young Entrepreneurs Association Tran Van Minh said that regarding the problem of accessing capital and production land, according to reflections, land costs currently account for about 25% of the total investment of enterprises. Meanwhile, land leased for annual payment is not eligible for mortgage to borrow bank loans. This makes many enterprises almost run out of financial resources after investing in building factories, and no longer have the ability to invest in technology and expand production.
In addition, capital difficulties continue to be a "chronic" problem for small and medium-sized enterprises. In the context of rising interest rates and tightened credit limits, access to capital sources becomes increasingly limited. Despite supportive moves from management agencies, businesses believe that the most important thing is still the stability and predictability of credit policies, in order to be able to build long-term production and business plans.
Another notable bottleneck is the digital transformation process. According to representatives of the Association, the majority of small and medium-sized enterprises are currently falling into a "three no's" situation: not having enough financial resources to invest methodically; not having a clear orientation, so they are easily misinformed; and not having an IT personnel team to operate the system. This makes many businesses, although aware of the importance of digital transformation, still hesitant and unable to deploy effectively.
In addition, the issue of policy stability and administrative procedure reform was also mentioned. Although the City has made many efforts, in reality, there is still a situation where some policies change quickly, lack specific roadmaps, causing difficulties for businesses in planning. For example, there are tax regulations adjusted many times in a short time that have directly affected production and business activities.
From that reality, the Hanoi Young Entrepreneurs Association has made many specific recommendations, focusing on solutions that the City can proactively implement within its authority.
The Association proposed that the city study a mechanism to allow businesses to use land lease rights for annual payment as collateral to borrow capital, or build specific credit guarantee programs for medium and long-term loans to serve technology investment. At the same time, it is necessary to continue to maintain and expand the policy of supporting land rent (reducing about 50%) for manufacturing enterprises and science and technology enterprises in high-tech zones and innovation centers.
In addition, the city is also recommended to study solutions to mobilize non-credit capital sources, creating conditions for businesses to access diverse capital channels, reducing dependence on the banking system...
