The Small and Medium Enterprises Support Programme for Digital Transformation (SMEdx) of the Ministry of Information and Communications has reached about 490,000 SMEs by the end of last month, accounting for 61 per cent of the total number of enterprises nationwide, achieving an average growth rate of 20 per cent per month.
More than 62,000 SMEs choose to use the platform in the SMEdx programme, an average increase of 15 per cent monthly.
After the COVID pandemic, most businesses, including SMEs, are aware that digital transformation is an irreversible trend for businesses to adapt and overcome the difficulties of the pandemic.
Therefore, the number of SMEs accessing the SMEdx platform has increased sharply, from 190,000 enterprises in April to more than 490,000 enterprises last month, a growth of 250 per cent.
Among the nine excellent foundation groups of the SMEdx programme, the enterprise governance platform is the most used by enterprises (39.8 per cent), followed by human resources and organisation (17 per cent), tourism and hotel platforms (16 per cent), technology infrastructure platform (14 per cent), and financial accounting platform (10 per cent).
To support SMEs in implementing effective digital transformation, the SMEdx programme is committed to providing three to six months free of charge to SMEs with less than 50 people.
SMEs, which use digital platforms, do not need to invest in operation, but just need to pay according to a monthly "subscription" which is both simple and secure.
There is a large difference between provinces and cities in term of the percentage of SMEs using the SMEdx platforms by the end of September. Some provinces and cities have a high percentage of businesses using the platform such as Ha Noi (34 per cent), HCM City (32.7 per cent), Da Nang (11.5 per cent), Ca Mau (7.5 per cent), and Binh Duong (2.5 per cent).
Some localities have low participation rate of SMEs such as Dien Bien, Hoa Binh, Tay Ninh, and Hau Giang.
The reason for this disparity is that the localities with a high percentage of SMEs using the SMEdx digital platform are basically localities experiencing the COVID pandemic quite heavily, so the perception of businesses about transformation is very high.
These localities are big cities where a large number of SMEs are concentrated, and these businesses have many opportunities to access information, policies as well as digital transformation technology.
Localities in remote, isolated and disadvantaged areas still face many obstacles in the process of digital transformation and accessing digital platforms for business development, mainly in terms of awareness and capacity. — VNS