Small and medium enterprises (SMEs), which accounts for up to 95 per cent of total Vietnamese businesses, will not only enjoy bright chances but also face a tougher competition when the country gains a ticket to enter the World Trade Organization (WTO), a conference in Hanoi was told on August 17.
The event entitled “Vietnamese Enterprises and WTO”, which drew 350 experts, officials and business people, was jointly held by the Trade Information Center under the Ministry of Trade, the National Committee for International Economic Cooperation (NCIEC), and the Vietnam Association of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises.
“Big difficulties are waiting for local SMEs before WTO threshold,” said Nguyen Van Long, a senior official of NCIEC, explaining that there is poor financial and management capacity seen in the country’s SMEs. He added each SME has an average capital of around VND3-4 billion (US$187,000-250,000) while the number comes to VND134 billion (US$8.4 million) for foreign-owned ones.
Vietnam’s SMEs competitiveness is much lower than those in the region and the world, experts noted, urging that enterprises needs actively raise awareness on the WTO organization and its rules and commitments to sharpen their competitiveness in the global integration.
A recent survey by the World Bank on all private, state-backed and foreign companies in Vietnam revealed that, only some 20 per cent of the interviewed firms had no ideal about the trade organization and 30 per cent of them believed WTO to have on impact on their businesses.
“This is quite disappointing as many enterprises ignore such a turning-point event, which is certainly bring them more challenges in the global integration”, Long emphasized.
The conference focused on other hot issues for Vietnam before the accession to the global trade club such as unfair competition, trade disputes and anti-dumping lawsuits.
It also served as a linking bridge for businesses to exchange experiences and discuss solutions to awaiting challenges to economic industries before the WTO accession, particularly footwear, garment, logistics, banking, telecom and which are said to face with most pressures from foreign rivals.
The SME association reported that Vietnam has seen a strong development of private companies for a past decade, especially from 1999. Now the country has about over 225,000 SMEs and the figured is expected to hit 500,000 by 2010.
B.T
Vietnamese
