National Business Portal online to support and connect enterprises

Le Manh Hung, AED's director general at the launching ceremony of the National Business Portal

The National Business Portal was created by the Ministry of Planning and Investment's Agency for Enterprises Development (AED) and the German Corporation for International Cooperation (GIZ).

Le Manh Hung, director general of the AED, said that the formation and development of a multi-dimensional, timely, and highly accurate information channel between the state and enterprises, enterprises and enterprises, small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and leading or foreign-invested or state-owned enterprises has been an urgent need.

The National Business Portal is also an information channel to promptly acknowledge the difficulties, solutions, and initiatives of businesses to the government, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The portal was taken online after many months of development and a lot of dedication and hard work. "In this regard, the National Business Portal is a timely and practical response from the government, demonstrating its commitment in supporting and promoting SMEs as mandated by the Law on Support for SMEs from 2018. It will be a comprehensive, user-friendly platform that acts as a one-stop shop for SMEs and businesses at large can rely on for information and data, as well value-added services," said Hung.

The launching ceremony of the National Business Portal

Sebastian Paust from the German Embassy to Vietnam said that at the core, the portal aims to support and meet the needs of SMEs and businesses, by providing an access point for relevant information and business support services such as the SME consultant network, business matching, market research, and industry reports, as well as an easy-to-navigate database on national SME support programmes.

The National Business Portal will be managed by the AED to deliver an urgently needed information and service hub that will address challenges facing businesses, especially SMEs endeavouring to internationalise. It will help raise the awareness and availability for Vietnamese enterprises on how to enter and tap into additional markets within and outside of the country and the region.

The regional project “Strengthening Regional Structures for SME Promotion in ASEAN” funded by Germany and implemented by Germany’s technical assistance agency GIZ has supported AED in creating this portal and similar initiatives in Cambodia and Myanmar.

"This work on the national level is closely linked to the regional support for the so-called ASEAN ACCESS business support platform, launched just this June, and being a joint initiative of all 10 ASEAN member states. ASEAN ACCESS is a broad network of SME support organisations across ASEAN and the national focal point for Vietnam is your Agency for Enterprise Development. ASEAN ACCESS provides at the regional level detailed market information and digital matchmaking services to facilitate the further internationalisation of ASEAN SMEs. Both ASEAN ACCESS and your national business portal will be linked and provide complementary benefits to SMEs," said Paust.