Hanoi (VNA) – The private sector is seen as a mainstay of Hanoi’seconomic development as the nearly 250,000 firms make up 40 percent of grossdomestic product (GDP) and generate jobs for over 50 percent of the labourersin the city.

Accounting for 97.2 percent of the capital city’s total enterprises, the privatebusinesses are affirming their leading role in the nation and city’s developmentand construction. Favourable mechanisms and policies outlined by localauthorities have helped the firms stabilise and branch out their businessoperation.

However, Vice Chairman and General Secretary of the Hanoi Small and MediumEnterprises Association Mac Quoc Anh said that small- and medium-sized enterprises(SMEs)’ performance is still constrained by many factors, comprising bothinternal capacity and unfriendly external factors like shortage of capital and high-qualityhuman resources, and narrow access to technology besides poor management andmarketing capacity.

Therefore, SMEs would lose their competitive edge, especially when Vietnam isintegrating deeply into the global economy, with various bilateral andmultilateral free trade deals having been inked with the ASEAN, the US, Japanand the EU, he said.

In a bid to make SMEs become more conducive to local economy, Hanoi will createa sound business environment, ensuring that it serves as a launching pad forthe firms to further develop, while supporting them in innovation, modernisingtechnologies, and improving labour productivity.

It is necessary for the local authority to channel efforts to narrow gap withthe ASEAN-4 (Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Thailand) in terms oftechnology, human resources and competitive capacity.

The city is completing and implementing effective mechanisms and policies,contributing to finalising the socialist-oriented market economy in the countryby 2030. Accordingly, economic growth will be promoted in tandem withsustainable development, environment protection, and climate change response.

Besides, it will continue shake-up in State-owned enterprises, targeting thatmost of the companies have international-standard quality management systems,and modern technologies and techniques equivalent to those of regionalcountries by 2030.-VNA