The Law on Support for Small- and Medium-sized Enterprises (SME) took effect on January 1, 2018, but its programmes have not provided adequate coverage to make any big difference.
The HCM City Credit Guarantee Fund provided guarantees to eight projects of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in 2016 so they could get loans worth a total of VND360 billion (US$16.07 million).
SMEs are struggling to get bank credit, a big drawback at a time when
the ASEAN Economic Community has come into being and many free trade
agreements are in the works, a conference heard in HCM City on January
13.
Raising capital remains one of the biggest difficulties for companies,
and so programmes that help connect businesses with capital sources play
a very important role, a conference heard in HCM City yesterday.