News about small and medium enterprises

At a group session on 17 October discussing the draft Law on Small and Medium-sized Enterprises Development, National Assembly Chairman Trần Thanh Mẫn said the sector still has large room to grow, but access to capital remains its biggest challenge, even though banks offer preferential credit programs worth tens of thousands of billions of VND. He attributed this to three causes: heavy reliance on collateral, insufficiently transparent financial reporting, and limited capacity to absorb capital, which together form a vicious cycle lasting years. He called for shifting to lending based on cash flow, transaction data and a firm's position in the supply chain, while scaling up regulatory sandboxes, reforming credit guarantee funds and supporting financial governance. He also stressed that support policies must be transparent and accountable, with priority for micro-enterprises.