The management board of the small- and medium-sized enterprise development project in the Mekong Delta province of Tra Vinh (SME Tra Vinh) has revealed it will spend VND70 billion (US$3 million) to support provincial SMEs this year.

Most of the cash, VND65 billion, is from the Canadian government in non-refundable aid. Non-refundable aid, or concessional loans, is when international financial institutions lend to developing economies for socio-economic development at very low interest rate.

To Ngoc Binh, the project director told Vietnamplus.vn that more than VND10 billion would be used to support startup activities, while more than VND23 billion would help build trademarks for major products, promote production connectivity, and expand markets.

Additionally, nearly VND22 billion would be invested in activities to improve the business environment and enhance provincial competitiveness. The rest would be poured into communications and project management, said Binh.

Last year, the SME Tra Vinh project disbursed nearly VND28 billion on activities supporting businesses, including developing SMEs in the 2018-20 period in association with activities related to gender, ethnic minorities and the environment; expanding markets and communications for coconut products; facilitating startups; and the building, monitoring and evaluating of plans to develop SMEs.

Through the activities, local SMEs have enhanced their management capacity and strengthened their connectivity with partners to expand their markets, while receiving support to realise ideas on developing key products of the province.

Currently, Tra Vinh has about 2,200 businesses operating with a total investment of more VND25.6 trillion and a combined workforce of nearly 90,000 people — VNS