SME support: Government’s role needs improvement
06/08/2010 - 180 Lượt xem
The conclusion of a survey conducted by the research group from the Economics University of Stockholm, Sweden stated that “Economic development gaps between localities and groups are getting wider and different nationwide.” However, in the meeting to declare the research’s results held in Hanoi on February 28, Prof. Ari Kokko, leader of the team also had another significant conclusion.
“We saw little support from the Government for small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs)”, said the professor.
Previous researches indicated that SMEs that were supported by the Government could operate better than those without such assistance in the initial phase. However, the team led by Prof. Ari Kokko did not study Government’s assistance in the initial phase of businesses but during their operation and it found that the Government’s role was too small. Prof. Ari Kokko had 3 reasons for this disappointing conclusion.
First, many enterprises were not active enough to ask for the Government’s assistance. What they did was just waiting. Second, businesses that requested Government’s support could be divided in 2 groups, one was going to bankruptcy and one was developing very quickly and the Government must choose between them to deliver support. And third, support for SMEs was sometimes baseless.
According to the professor a WB research also said that the social welfare system did not lift the poor from poverty. The reason here was that social policy did not target the poorest households but benefited people who were not poor.
Prof. Ari Kokko concluded that the Government had not play an effective role in narrowing development gaps between regions and groups. He reaffirmed that the Government’s role was significant but what it should do is to provide proper macro conditions such as facilitating businesses to take part in international trade, opening door to FDI, creating a good environment for private firms, etc…
Source: VNECONOMY, 3/3/2006
