Workshop backs SMEs in loan access, payment in foreign trade. (Photo: VNA)Hai Phong(VNA) – A workshop took place in northern Hai Phong city on August 4 to provideinformation on loan access and methods of payment in international trade forsmall- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
The event, held bythe Ministry of Industry and Trade’s Vietnam Trade Promotion Agency (Vietrade),forms part of a three-year project funded by Swiss State Secretariat forEconomic Affairs (SECO) to enhance capacity of SMEs in Vietnam via local tradepromotion agencies which started in 2013.
Speaking at theworkshop, Vietrade Deputy Director Do Kim Lang said globalization and freetrade have motivated robust development of exports and imports, however, manyVietnamese SMEs are not familiar with accessing loans from banks for foreigntrade activities.
Statistics show thatSMEs with revenues of less than 20 billion VND a year accounted for about 70percent of more than 700,000 companies across the country. They have found ithard to access to formal loans, instead many of them have sought funding frominformal sources, Lang noted.
Deeper globalintegration is likely to come together with increase in bad debts and risks inpayment if the firms do not actively update themselves with knowledge and learnfrom others’ experience in international trade, he warned.
To help the firmssolve the problems, the workshop focused discussion on finance management inforeign trade, financial solutions and methods for accessing loans, severaloutstanding financial solutions for Vietnamese exporters, risks ininternational payments and how to minimize them, and more.-VNA
VNA
