|
Business clusters to lift competitiveness, spur development
The development of small- and medium-sized enterprise (SMEs) clusters will help Viet Nam's businesses raise their competitiveness, more deeply integrate into the world economy and contribute to the country's sustainable growth, according to head of the Ministry of Planning and Investment Agency for Enterprise Development Ho Sy Hung.
Speaking at a workshop titled "SME Cluster Development in Viet Nam" held by ASMED in collaboration with the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO) in Ha Noi yesterday, Hung said 90 per cent of Vietnamese enterprises were SMEs, adding that they played an important role in creating jobs, increasing incomes and contributing to the country's development.
"Viet Nam's SMEs have retained continuous development in the period of 2008-09 despite the global economic meltdown, with a growth 1.5 times higher than that of 2005-06," he said.
He said the three-year project funded by the Italian Government from 2009 to 2011 with a total budget of 3 million euros aimed to upgrade the competitiveness and capacity of Vietnamese enterprises, through extensive technical assistance programmes and the promotion of business partnerships between Italy and Viet Nam.
He added that the project would help develop SME clusters which are commonly found worldwide but not in developing countries like Viet Nam.
Italian Ambassador to Viet Nam Andrea Perugini said the development would not only contribute to the country's growth but create favourable conditions for Italian businesses operating in Viet Nam.
He added that Italian businesses with high quality technology, know-how and marketing have begun to pay attention to Vietnamese enterprises.
Nguyen Trong Hieu, Deputy Director of ASMED, said the number of SMEs had increased with a yearly average growth rate of 20 to 22 per cent from over 14,000 SMEs in 2000 to 84,500 last year.
"The Vietnamese Government has several policies and solutions to promote the development of SMEs including financial support, administrative reform, and improved business law framework," Hieu said.
SME clusters are defined by UNIDO as being a geographical concentration of enterprises resulting in enterprise networking by sector.
Giovanna Ceglie, UNIDO's Project Manager and Chief Clusters and Business Linkages Unit said clusters are localised agglomerations of enterprises producing the same goods and services.
"It is often observed that clusters increase competitiveness for local enterprises and increase living standards in the territories where they exist," she said.
She added that a cluster project can lower costs, promote trust and facilitate the identification of shared interest and vision.
She said clusters and business linkages have improved their effectiveness for hunger eradication, poverty reduction and sustainable development in developing countries through over 60 projects carried out in some 30 countries in the last 15 years.
She shared some experiences in promoting the clusters including avoiding subsidies, strong private sector leadership but public sector involvement for public good provision, institutional capacity building for sustainability and enlarging impact, monitoring and resolution of conflicts.
Textile and garments, leather and footwear, wood processing and furniture are three focused sectors that were chosen for pilot implementation of the project. The industries were selected as they are among five exporters of Viet Nam. However, they are of low added value, low integration, and lack design and marketing capacity.
Attendants proposed the Government support models of business linkages in an industrial cluster in a region, or even inter-regionally in Viet Nam.
vietnamnews
|
