To transition small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) from being numerous to strong, policy must connect markets, capital, technology, and necessary resources while reducing costs during their scale-up journey.
Support resources must closely align with enterprise needs
Policy toward SMEs is being oriented away from piecemeal support toward creating conditions for enterprises to enhance capacity and grow. During the drafting of the new law, many mechanisms have been proposed to remove bottlenecks in capital, technology, human resources, standards, and markets; support innovation, digital transformation, brand building, meeting international standards, and deeper integration into value chains.
The key change is that these resources must be connected along the enterprise development process. At a consultation workshop on the draft Law on Support for SMEs (amended) organized by the Ministry of Finance, Vice Chairman Dinh Hong Ky of the Ho Chi Minh City Business Association (HUBA), argued that policy needs to shift from fragmented support to support following the enterprise upgrading journey from capacity diagnosis, governance improvement, standards compliance, and digitalization to capital and market access.
Support effectiveness must also be measured by tangible results such as revenue, orders, productivity, exports, level of digitalization, greening, and the ability to join value chains.
According to Vice Chairman Phan Hoang Tuan of the Ho Chi Minh City Association of Small and Medium Enterprises (HCM-SME), to enter supply chains, enterprises typically must simultaneously satisfy requirements regarding technology, standards, human resources, and markets.
Therefore, high-cost resources such as testing laboratories, research and development (R&D), prototype development, standards consulting, traceability, market data, and trade promotion should be organized for shared usage.
Through this, enterprises can lower standard-upgrading costs and shorten the pathway from product to market without having to self-invest entirely in areas beyond their capacity.
Alongside generating additional resources, the "runway" for SMEs must be widened by reducing costs during the growth process. Lawyer Nguyen Thi Kim Oanh of the Ho Chi Minh City SME Association, noted that tax and accounting regulations remain numerous and complex, while legal consulting fees pose a burden for many small firms.
Formulating an accounting framework for small and medium enterprises’ toward streamlined accounts and reporting, alongside increased software adoption and data integration, must directly target reducing compliance time and costs.
For small and medium enterprises, saved costs represent resources that can be redirected into production, technology, and market expansion. A prolonged procedure can raise costs or even cause an enterprise to miss orders or investment opportunities. Consequently, reform must extend to execution, clarifying responsibilities, authority, processing timelines, and outcomes.
Unlocking capital bottlenecks
By August 28, 2026, SME credit balance reached over VND4.1 quadrillion (US$157.8 billion), up approximately 12.4 percent compared to the end of 2025 which was higher than the 10.24 percent growth rate of economy-wide credit. More than 100 credit institutions maintain outstanding loans to SMEs, with cumulative disbursement volume surpassing VND3.8 quadrillion. However, the sector accounting for over 98 percent of total enterprises still represents only around 20 percent of total outstanding credit.
The bottleneck thus lies not merely in the volume of capital sources, but in the capability to channel capital to enterprises with feasible plans that lack collateral. Decision 1809/QD-TTg dated September 18, 2026, issued by the Prime Minister, opens an additional access route by requesting credit institutions to innovate lending methods based on business plans, output market expansion potential, value chains, supply chains, payment data, and cash flows.
Concurrently, building an SME database covering revenue, profits, cash flow, tax obligations, social insurance, and other operational data provides additional grounds for evaluating enterprise capacity. This approach expands the capability to identify qualified loan applicants without lowering credit standards.
In practice, cash-flow and value-chain lending approaches have already been deployed at several banks. Bach Thanh Long, Deputy General Director of Joint Stock Commercial Bank for Foreign Trade of Vietnam (Vietcombank), noted that an SME might hold few collateral assets yet serve as a vital supplier to an anchor enterprise with steady orders.
Evaluating such an enterprise in isolation restricts its capital access. When cash flow and commercial relationships across the entire chain are evaluated, debt repayment capacity is recognized more comprehensively. In the first 8 months of 2026, SME credit at Vietcombank grew 13.5 percent, outpacing the 7.8 percent overall credit growth rate.
Supportive capital must also target generating new capabilities for enterprises. According to Chairman Nguyen Ngoc Hoa of the Board of Members of Ho Chi Minh City State Financial Investment Company (HFIC), interest rate subsidy mechanisms help enterprises lower capital costs when investing in prioritized sectors. For small and medium enterprises, this capital can be directed toward machinery, technology, workshops, and items that directly boost production capacity.
The effectiveness of support should therefore be evaluated by the capacity generated post-investment, rather than halting at disbursed capital figures alone. Conversely, to access capital via cash flow and value chains, enterprises must ensure financial transparency, standardize data, and elevate governance capabilities.
Can Van Luc, Chief Economist at BIDV and member of the Prime Minister's Policy Advisory Council, emphasized that developing the private economic sector requires simultaneously perfecting institutions, improving the investment and business environment, promoting green and digital transitions, and enhancing access to resources—in which the execution phase holds vital significance. For SMEs, policies must also be categorized so that resources reach the precise needs and value-creation capabilities of each enterprise group.
When markets, capital, technology, human resources, and institutions are reconnected, each development step builds a foundation for the next. Orders provide the basis for enterprises to invest and access capital; capital is converted into machinery, technology, and standards-compliance capacity; and enhanced production capacity opens pathways into value chains and larger markets. The policy "runway" must thus generate a movement flow from survival to accumulation, from small to medium, from isolated manufacturing into suppliers, and from contract processing up to higher value-added stages.
According to CEO Nguyen Hung of Tien Phong Commercial Joint Stock Bank (TPBank), the issue facing small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) is not merely whether they can secure loans, but whether the capital obtained aligns with their specific needs and growth potential. Since each enterprise differs in scale, cash flow, business cycle, and investment requirements, approaches to credit must be tailored to their actual operational characteristics.
Process digitization can shorten appraisal times and reduce the administrative procedures and costs associated with accessing capital. However, expanding credit does not equate to lowering standards. The crucial factor is accurately assessing business plans, cash flow generation, and repayment capacity to ensure that capital reaches enterprises with genuine and substantive operations.
