Despite being supported considerably by the policy, many businesses must be proactive in their approach

Giving support since enterprises joined the market

For newly established enterprises, difficulties related to financial issues, facilities, or business management mindset are considered the biggest barriers to business operation, especially for small and medium enterprises.

In order to contribute to supporting businesses, helping them reduce this burden and difficulty, the State has issued many regulations and policies to support businesses. The province has also issued many other policies to promote support activities for businesses, especially in the early stages when new businesses enter the market.

Specifically, in the first stage of carrying out the procedures to register for the business establishment, individuals and organizations will be guided on the steps of information declaration and input to ensure that the enterprise can complete the valid profile with one time trying. This support and advice process is completely free at the Business Registration Office (Department of Planning and Investment) or the Provincial Public Administration Service Center.

Along with that, newly established enterprises will be supported by the province with electronic digital signatures (1.5 million VND), e-invoice costs (1.5 million VND), the cost of hiring accountants for micro-enterprises converted from business households (24 million VND) and initial loan interest (30 million VND).

According to the results of the implementation of the business support policy of the Department of Planning and Investment, in the first months of 2022, this department has supported 700 businesses with a total budget of 1.8 billion VND. Particularly, they have supported public digital signatures for 700 enterprises with a total budget of 1,050 million VND, e-invoices for 500 businesses with a total budget of 750 million VND, accounting costs for 93 businesses converted from household businesses with a total budget of 360 million VND.

After officially joining the market, depending on the form or type of enterprises, they can receive the appropriate support policy such as aiding for premises in industrial zones and clusters, human resource training, sales registration on international e-commerce sites, business households to convert to enterprises.

For start-up businesses, they will receive support relating to office working place, human resources for start-ups and innovation, marketing support, product and service promotion, technology information, inventions, etc. In addition, businesses will also receive support in science and technology, perfecting product standards, etc.

Specifically, the enterprises are supported to train and improve the management and operation capacity. Enterprises have been considered a bright spot in recent years. According to Ms. Le Thi Hong Mai, Head of the Business Registration Department, Department of Planning and Investment, the capacity and mindset of an enterprise will determine its success or failure.

For this reason, the Department of Planning and Investment has organized many training activities for businesses in the realistic style, held separate training for female-owned enterprises, and had many other thematic training activities that attract a large number of  enterprises to participating.

Businesses Must Know What They Need

There are numerous policies as well as considerable access to them. However, there is a fact shared by businesses and departments is that "enterprises are not interested in policies" due to the cause that they are afraid of getting fund support from the State will not be easy. This issue has become a barrier in their mindset of accessing support policies of the State, reducing the ability to interact between the State and enterprises in policy implementation.

Ms. Le Thi Kim Hang, Director of YesHue Eco Investment and Service Joint Stock Company, said that when first establishing a business, the business had received a lot of support policies on electronic invoices, digital signatures as well as procedures for setting up enterprises. After its establishment, enterprises participating in the YesHue Eco project investment as well as the innovation startup competition, and the business received more support from the State. Particularly, the business got supported of nearly 800 million VND to invest in the power system in YesHue Eco resort, to aid trade promotion, to support machinery and equipment, training, etc.

From her experiences in accessing these policies, Le Thi Kim Hang shared: “I - myself have examined the support policies very carefully. With the suitable policies for businesses, we all contact relevant units to receive advice and support. Thanks to that, my business can access a lot of support policies."

In addition to learning about policies, businesses themselves also have to determine what their businesses need and want to be supported. This is  because only when they know what they need, they would find the right support channels and policies.

Another solution being chosen by many businesses to reduce the time to learn and complete procedures but still receive support packages is to hire consulting units to assist businesses in carrying out relating procedures. This is also considered a solution to help businesses "take shortcuts" in accessing business support policies.

Story and photo: Hoang Loan