<div align="justify">Vietnamese small and medium enterprises are listed among 3,000 SMEs in ten Asia-Pacific countries with optimism about the country&rsquos economic growth prospects this year, Hong Kong & Shanghai Banking Corp (HSBC) said in its report released July 16.</div> <div align="justify"> </div> <div align="justify">Up to 67 per cent of 300 SMEs in Vietnam said they strongly believed in the current economic growth rate or at higher pace, HSBC&rsquos report noted.</div> <div align="justify"> </div> <div align="justify">As many as 54 per cent of the 300 Vietnamese SMEs said they will expand their investment and 41 per cent of them said they will keep investment plans unchanged from now till the of the year, the report added.</div> <div align="justify"> </div> <div align="justify">After surveying SMEs in Hong Kong, China, Taiwan, Bangledesh, Singapore, India, Vietnam, South Korea, Malaysia and Indonesia, HSBC said SMEs in India are most-optimistic, followed by China and Taiwan and the other extreme are South Korean SMEs due to political and social unrests.</div> <div align="justify"> </div> <div align="justify">In terms of employment recruitment, 74 per cent of Asia-Pacific SMEs said they planned to keep current manpower meanwhile a considerable number of SMEs in Vietnam said they will employ more workers.</div> <div align="justify"> </div> <div align="justify">Assessing the HSBC&rsquos report on Vietnam&rsquos situation, Huynh Buu Quang, director of HSBC&rsquos financial enterprise services department said &ldquoVietnam&rsquos economy the tough time in the first half this year with high inflation and hefty trade deficit, forex market risks,&rdquo reminding &ldquolocal SMEs should be more vigilant.&rdquo</div> <div align="justify"> </div> <div align="justify">Vietnam now has 260,000 non-state companies totaling VND600 trillion. The figure is fore to jump to 500,000 non-state firms by 2010. (Vietnam Economic Times) </div>
Vietnamese
