Directive 10/CT-TTg 2025 on promotion of the development of small- and medium-sized enterprises

DIRECTIVE

On promotion of the development of small- and medium-sized enterprises

The private economic sector, mainly small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) (accounting for around 98% of the total number of enterprises operating in the economy), has always played a very important role in socio-economic development. The private economic sector has contributed more than 50% of GDP and 30% of the state budget revenue, and created more than 40 million jobs (accounting for more than 82% of the total workforce in the economy). SMEs have been the main force exploiting niche markets and mobilizing maximum resources among the people to serve socio-economic development. SMEs have been present in almost all production and business sectors, trades and fields. Due to their small- and medium-sized size, SMEs have consistently demonstrated flexibility, dynamism, innovation, and successful start-ups of new and creative business models. Even during difficult periods, SMEs shave exerted their efforts to maintain production and trade activities and demonstrated social responsibility to the community and the country.

However, SMEs have encountered numerous difficulties and challenges in pursuing rapid and sustainable development in terms of quantity, scale, quality, and operational efficiency. Although SMEs have constituted a significant proportion of enterprises, their operational quality has remained suboptimal (about 90% of which were small-scaled enterprises with capital of less than VND 10 billion each), their competitiveness has remained limited and the majority of them have not yet involved in export activities and value chains, have lacked fundamental technologies and resources to digitize business activities and their corporate governance have not yet aligned with international standards and practices.

In the context of a rapid, complex, and unpredictable global situation, our country's economy has demonstrated a swift and clear recovery, being a bright spot in macroeconomic growth and stability in the region and the world. In 2024, our nation has realized all 15 major targets. The year 2025 is a particularly important year with pivotal significance which will lay a foundation for the country to enter a new era - an era of the nation’s rise for strong, civilized and prosperous development. The business community in general and the SMEs in particular will play an important role in achieving the economic growth target of 8 percent in 2025 and a double-digit growth in the following years.

In order to remove obstacles and difficulties and create the most favorable conditions for SMEs to break through, the Prime Minister has requested ministers, heads of ministerial-level agencies and government-attached agencies, and chairpersons of People's Committees of provinces and centrally-run cities and related agencies (referred to as ministries, sectors and localities) to continue drastically, synchronously and effectively implementing the proposed viewpoints, orientations, objectives, tasks and solutions, focusing on a number of the following key contents:

I. DEVELOPMENT VIEWPOINTS

1. To reach high consensus on the awareness of the important role of SMEs in socio-economic development. To drastically implement the goal of developing SMEs in a fast and sustainable manner, increasing in quantity, quality, scale and operational efficiency and make significant contributions to the economy. To strive to have at least 1 million more enterprises from now until 2030.

2. To prioritize the allocation of resources to support the development of SMEs, focusing on innovative SMEs; to enhance their competitiveness so as to take part in value chains, digital transformation and green transformation, and develop new business models; to promote technology application, innovation and digital transformation.

3. Related ministries, sectors and localities will uphold the sense of responsibility, regard folks and enterprises as the center and consider difficulties of folks and enterprises their own to proactively support, accompany and settle based on the spirit of "don't say no, don't say difficult and don't say yes but do nothing", "don't criminalize economic and civil relations", and high determination, great efforts and drastic action; and assign specific tasks according to the spirit of "clear people, clear tasks, clear responsibilities, clear competence, clear time and clear results".

4. To promote the role of organizations and associations representing the business community and acting as a bridge between enterprises and state management agencies and socio-political organizations to regularly hold dialogues, exchange information and remove difficulties and obstacles for enterprises in investment and business activities.

5. SMEs will continue promoting the tradition of national pride and self-respect and fully mobilizing resources; be proactive, creative, flexible and innovative, have a spirit of breakthrough, dare to think, dare to do, dare to take risks, have the aspirations to develop production and trade, and enrich themselves and the society.

II. KEY TASKS AND SOLUTIONS

1. Improving policies and laws, reforming administrative procedures and creating a favorable and equal investment and business environment for SMEs

a/ Ministries, sectors and localities:

- To continue focusing on drastically and effectively implementing tasks and solutions set in resolutions of the Party Central Committee, Political Bureau, National Assembly, Government, etc. so as to remove obstacles and difficulties, and create conditions for full mobilization of SMEs’ resources to contribute to economic growth and development.

- To eliminate all administrative procedures, in 2025 reduce administrative procedure processing time by at least 30%; cut compliance costs by 30 percent; and slash at least 30% percent of unnecessary business conditions. To strongly shift management from "pre-inspection" to "post-inspection" in association with the intensification of inspection and supervision.

- To focus on administrative reform, quickly settle investment procedures and remove difficulties and obstacles for enterprises and projects. To accelerate the development of e-government and digital government to help enterprises access information and public services in a convenient and fast manner.

b/ The Ministry of Finance:

- To promptly complete the draft amended Law on Enterprises, Law on the State Budget, Law on Corporate Income Tax and Law on Excise Tax and submit them to the Government for timely submission to the National Assembly for consideration and passage at the 9th session of the 15th National Assembly according to regulations to thoroughly address current inadequacies and obstacles.

- In 2025, to evaluate the implementation of the Law on Support for Small- and Medium-sized Enterprises, propose and report to the Government to ensure timely submission to the National Assembly the inclusion of the amended Law on Support for SMEs in the law- and ordinance-building program as soon as possible in the direction of substantive innovation of support policies and procedures, etc.

- To study and propose a legal framework for managing and promoting healthy and effective development of digital assets, tokenized assets and digital currencies and submit it to the Government in March 2025.

c/ The Ministry of Science and Technology:

To urgently complete the draft Law on Science, Technology and Innovation and the revised Law on Standards and Technical Regulations and submit them to the Government for timely submission to the National Assembly for consideration and passage at the 9th session of the 15th National Assembly according to regulations.

d/ The Ministry of Industry and Trade:

To study and formulate the draft Law on Production of Key Industrial Products and propose to the Government for submission to the National Assembly the inclusion of such draft Law in the National Assembly's 2025 law- and ordinance-building program to promote the development of key industries in line with the context of science, technology, and innovation; and to report thereof to the Government in the second quarter of 2025.

dd/ The Ministry of Agriculture and Environment:

- To promptly assume the prime responsibility for, and coordinate with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in, discussing with the United States the extension of the deadline for completing dossiers and conducting equivalence assessments, and concurrently completing valid dossiers pursuant to the US Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA) to ensure that such extension does not affect the fishing, production, processing and export of aquatic products to the US and report to the Prime Minister before April 15, 2025.

- To take initiative in reviewing, and improving legal frameworks concerning, the management of fishing, production and export of aquatic products to align with products exported to Europe; to implement diplomatic schemes and support fishermen in legal fishing to completely handle the yellow card warning against illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing for Vietnam’s fished products.

- To study the formulation of the by-product raw material industry development strategy to increase the values of agricultural products, build a new raw material industry and create new competitive advantages for the agro-economy, and report thereof to the Prime Minister in the second quarter of 2025.

2. Planning and developing infrastructure to facilitate the development of SMEs

a/ Ministries, sectors and localities:

- To focus on efficiently implementing, and plans to implement, the promulgated master plans; to develop economic corridors and industrial-urban-service belts associated with new centers (Long Thanh airport, international financial center); to take initiative in proposing solutions to develop new industries (semiconductors, chips, etc), thereby guiding and supporting SMEs’ operations.

- To strive to raise the public investment disbursement rate to more than 95% in the assigned plan in 2025, especially prioritizing important and urgent projects, strategic infrastructure projects and regional and national connectivity projects. To improve the investment preparation quality for projects during the 2026-2030 period, especially strategic infrastructure and North-South express railway projects, international connectivity railways, urban railways, international transshipment seaports, etc; to promote investment by economic groups, state corporations, and large enterprises to create driving forces for leading, spreading, and activating investment by SMEs.

b/ The Ministry of Finance:

To promptly complete the dossier of request for the formulation of the Law on Industrial Parks and Economic Zones which comprises studies and proposals on new, specific and outstanding incentives and preferential policies for industrial parks and economic zones, free trade zones and special economic zones so as to develop professional and specialized industrial park models and SMEs; new economic zone models to attract investment for the development of key industries and fields according to the country's socio-economic development strategy; to complete and submit it to the Government in August 2025.

c/ The Ministry of Science and Technology:

To accelerate 5G commercialization, study 6G technology, develop telecommunications satellites and upgrade national telecommunications backbone infrastructure. To continue to invest in and develop high-speed fixed broadband infrastructure; to study and propose mechanisms and policies to prioritize and promote the establishment of digital technology industrial enterprises in SMEs.

3. Supporting SMEs in access to finance and credit

a/ The Ministry of Finance:

- To work out effective solutions to promote lending activities of the Small- and Medium-sized Enterprise Development Fund to create a channel for capital mobilization at reasonable costs for SMEs.

- To thoroughly simplify the process, procedures and dossiers to provide tax incentives and value-added tax refunds for enterprises; to study and apply post-inspection methods so that SMEs’ cash flow and business operations are not affected.

b/ The State Bank of Vietnam:

- To resolutely implement credit programs and policies for enterprises as directed by the Government and Prime Minister; to prioritize the stabilization of interest rates; to proactively and flexibly regulate the monetary policies in an appropriate and efficient manner to create trust for enterprises; to coordinate with ministries, sectors and localities in promptly removing obstacles in the implementation process.

- To focus credit on production and trade, prioritized sectors, traditional economic growth driving forces (consumption, investment, export) and new growth driving forces (digital transformation, green transformation, circular economy, sharing economy, science, technology and innovation, etc.); to strictly control credit for sectors with potential risks, ensuring safe and effective credit operations.

- To direct credit institutions to continue to reduce operation costs, accelerate the application of information technology, simplify administrative procedures, restructure and reorganize the apparatuses for more efficient operation, enhance social responsibility, and be willing to share part of their profits to reduce lending interest rates to support SMEs in accessing bank credit capital; to promote mortgage loans based on future assets in accordance with law to diversify and unlock capital sources for production and trade activities of SMEs.

4. Supporting SMEs in enhancing human resources’ quality, digital transformation, improving labor productivity, and building Vietnamese enterprise brands for market expansion and deeper integration in value chains

a/ Ministries, sectors and localities:

- To effectively implement activities to support the training of high-quality human resources for SMEs, focusing on training to improve the qualifications and professional skills for employees at enterprises; in-depth corporate governance training; training based on actual needs of enterprises; and online training for enterprises.

- To step up the implementation of programs and solutions to support SMEs in innovation, digital transformation, green transformation, development of new economic models (circular economy, creative economy, and sharing economy), emerging sectors and fields (artificial intelligence, big data, cloud computing, new energy, biomedicine, cultural industry, entertainment industry, etc.).

- To support the upgrading of SMEs to meet the standards for association with large enterprises, chain-heading enterprises, and foreign-invested enterprises.

- To increase support for enterprises to develop cross-border e-commerce activities; to develop logistics services, expand air and sea transport; intensify international integration in service provision and sign digital economic agreements, thereby encouraging enterprises to expand export markets.

b/ The Ministry of Finance:

To assume the prime responsibility for organizing the implementation of the Law on Support for Small- and Medium-sized Enterprises, ensuring the practical and efficient use of state budget funds for supporting SMEs.

c/ The Ministry of Industry and Trade:

- To study and develop the Law on E-commerce to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of state management of e-commerce; to create conditions for sustainable e-commerce development, to support SMEs to take advantage of modern platforms to expand their markets for sale of products and goods.

- To promote connections between domestic manufacturers and modern distribution channels to expand the sale of enterprises' products nationwide; to develop smart logistics systems, combining modern warehouses, artificial intelligence (AI) and big data technology (Big Data) to optimize the transportation stage and reduce logistics costs for enterprises.

- To regularly provide information and support enterprises to meet standards of export markets; to update and evaluate Vietnam's export situation to give early warnings to SMEs about goods that are likely to be investigated by foreign countries for imposition of anti-circumvention measures; to support SMEs in anti-dumping lawsuits.

- To continue implementing the Vietnam National Brand Program, and support SMEs in building and developing strong brands, promoting foreign trade development, and building the image of Vietnam associated with the values of "Quality - Innovation, Creativity - Pioneering capacity".

- To complete a scheme on an FTA-leveraging ecosystem to support SMEs to effectively seize opportunities from the 17 signed FTAs; to expand and diversify export markets and alternative supply sources; to enhance the exploitation of new and potential markets (in the Middle East, Latin America, Africa, Central Asia, Egypt, Halal, etc.); and report such to the Prime Minister within June 2025.

d/ The Ministry of Justice:

- To intensify innovation in legal support for SMEs, enterprises in remote areas and areas with socio-economic difficulties or extreme socio-economic difficulties, women-owned enterprises, and enterprises having social impacts.

- To effectively implement the Project on application of digital technology in receiving and handling feedback and recommendations on legal documents approved under the Prime Minister’s Decision No. 244/QD-TTg of February 5, 2025, with a focus on building and coordinating with ministries, sectors and localities in operating the information system for receipt and processing of feedback and recommendations on legal documents to promptly detect, study and propose amendments for improvement of policies and regulations, and remove institutional barriers and obstacles to achieve the targets of creation and development promotion.

dd/ The Ministry of Agriculture and Environment:

To continue to support enterprises, especially SMEs, in implementing pilot and specific mechanisms and policies, new and breakthrough regulations, and "green channel" mechanisms for high-tech agricultural projects; to support technology transfer and application of technology in production and processing of farm produce to improve productivity, boost product quality and value, increase opportunities for market expansion, and promote exports.

e/ The Ministry of Education and Training:

- To focus on synchronously and effectively implementing solutions and policies to encourage and promote the training of high-quality human resources for prioritized and emerging sectors. To review, evaluate and fundamentally renovate training programs toward encouraging the inclusion of contents on entrepreneurial and startup spirits in such programs, ensuring that they are consistent with reality and meet the requirements of enterprises.

- To improve the content of higher education and vocational education in a practical manner by closely following enterprises’ demands and training as ordered by enterprises. To promote the establishment of startup and innovation centers in higher education institutions to promote the commercialization of scientific ideas and research works in educational and training institutions.

5. Further bringing into play the roles of the Vietnam Association of Small and Medium Enterprises, business associations, commodity line associations

- To proactively, actively and effectively enhance the role of connecting the business community; to promote the representative function of member enterprises in participating in giving opinions on, making and criticizing policies; to monitor, supervise and independently evaluate the process of making and implementing laws and development programs, plans and projects of the State related to SMEs; and to represent and protect their members’ interests in disputes.

- To promote activities and improve the quality of support for the development of SMEs; to develop the contingent of entrepreneurs; to pioneer in promoting the building of Vietnam business culture; to strengthen connectivity and improve the effectiveness of international integration; to strengthen connection activities among, and support the development of, business associations and their members, to build a united and strong business community for a strong Vietnam.

III. ORGANIZATION OF IMPLEMENTATION

1. Ministers, heads of ministerial-level agencies, heads of government-attached agencies, and chairpersons of provincial-level People's Committees shall proactively focus on thoroughly realize and develop plans to promptly and effectively implement and direct agencies, organizations and units under their management to strictly implement the tasks set out in this Directive; and take full responsibility before the Prime Minister for the implementation results of ministries, sectors and localities.

2. Deputy Prime Ministers shall, within the scope of their assigned fields, direct ministries, sectors and localities to focus on effectively implementing the tasks and solutions set out in this Directive; and promptly handle arising problems according to their competence.

3. The Government Office shall, within the scope of its assigned functions and tasks, monitor and urge ministries, sectors and localities to perform their tasks as specified in this Directive.-

Prime Minister

PHAM MINH CHINH