HA NOI, 08 December 2020 – The Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) held the policy forum “Supporting SMEs impacted by COVID-19: Narrowing the gap from policy to implementation.”

Since the end of 2019, the COVID-19 pandemic has spread rapidly to 235 countries and territories around the world. 65 million cases have been confirmed to date, and as of early December 2020, the virus has claimed the lives of 1.5 million people worldwide. To limit the spread, many countries, including Vietnam, have adopted strong anti-epidemic measures such as border closures, social distancing, and restrictions on domestic and international travel. The double impact from the pandemic’s spread and prevention measures has had far-reaching effects on the production and business activities of Vietnamese enterprises. To support and accompany businesses during this challenging period, the Government of Vietnam has quickly issued many policies to support businesses in overcoming difficulties and restoring operations.

To contribute to promoting the effective implementation of the already-promulgated support policy and strengthening businesses’ capacity to access supportive policy packages, VCCI has cooperated with UNDP to organize this event. The policy forum will cover two main topics: (1) reviewing already-issued policies to support businesses influenced by the COVID-19 pandemic, along with their implementation; (2) discussing solutions to improve the effectiveness of policies to support businesses affected by COVID-19.

Mr. Vu Tien Loc, Chairman of the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said: “With today's forum, VCCI wants to find a common voice between representatives of state agencies and the business community in promoting effective policy implementation. Policies should be more realistic, the procedure should be simpler, and classifying and the classification of the subjects needs to be correct; that is, what mechanisms we should have for improving businesses’ capacity to access these policies in the coming time and how we can quickly put good policies into practice”

“The Policy Forum today brings together government, business, and the UN to better understand how to support SMEs impacted by the complex and overlaying crises of COVID-19, unprecedented floods, and droughts. Government has a key role to play in enabling policies and incentives to boost SMEs as a driving force in building forward a more robust and resilient economy,” said Caitlin Wiesen, UNDP Resident Representative in Viet Nam.

The forum, thanks to the active participation of representatives of state agencies related to the implementation of supportive policies and a large number of business associations, will contribute to quickly identifying the real difficulties in implementation for the policies which have been enacted. The parties will discuss and propose solutions appropriate to the current context. The recommendations at the forum will be synthesized by VCCI and UNDP and forwarded to the Government and relevant state agencies. In addition, both organizations will continue to implement capacity building programs for business associations and businesses to access more timely and effective supporting policies.

For more information, please kindly contact:

Ms. Phan Hương Giang,
UNDP CCE Media and Communications Analyst,
email: phan.huong.giang@undp.org, phone: 0948466688

Ms. Nguyen Le Ha,
Legal Department of VCCI,
email: hanl@vcci.com.vn, phone: 024.35771460

Download documents and presentations at https://bit.ly/HotroSMEscovid19