Hanoi (VNS/VNA) - The Small and Medium EnterprisesSupport Programme for Digital Transformation (SMEdx) of the Ministry ofInformation and Communications has reached about 490,000 SMEs by the end oflast month, accounting for 61% of the total number of enterprises nationwide,achieving an average growth rate of 20% per month.

More than 62,000 SMEs choose to use the platform in the SMEdxprogramme, an average increase of 15% monthly.

After the COVID pandemic, most businesses, including SMEs, areaware that digital transformation is an irreversible trend for businesses toadapt and overcome the difficulties of the pandemic.

Therefore, the number of SMEs accessing the SMEdx platform hasincreased sharply, from 190,000 enterprises in April to more than 490,000enterprises last month, a growth of 250%.

Among the nine foundation groups of the SMEdx programme, theenterprise governance platform is the most used by enterprises (39.8%),followed by human resources and organisation (17%), tourism and hotel platforms(16%), technology infrastructure platform (14%), and financial accountingplatform (10%).

To support SMEs in implementing effective digital transformation,the SMEdx programme is committed to providing three to six months free ofcharge to SMEs with less than 50 people.

SMEs, which use digital platforms, do not need to invest inoperation, but just need to pay according to a monthly "subscription"which is both simple and secure.

There is a large difference between provinces and cities in termof the percentage of SMEs using the SMEdx platforms by the end of September.Some provinces and cities have a high percentage of businesses using theplatform such as Hanoi (34%), HCM City (32.7%), Da Nang (11.5%), Ca Mau (7.5%),and Binh Duong (2.5%).

Some localities have low participation rate of SMEs such as DienBien, Hoa Binh, Tay Ninh, and Hau Giang.

The reason for this disparity is that the localities with a highpercentage of SMEs using the SMEdx digital platform are basically localitiesexperiencing the COVID pandemic quite heavily, so businesses have betterawareness about digital transformation.

These localities are big cities where a large number of SMEs areconcentrated, and these businesses have many opportunities to accessinformation, policies as well as digital transformation technology.

Localities in remote, isolated and disadvantaged areas still facemany obstacles in the process of digital transformation and accessing digitalplatforms for business development, mainly in terms of awareness and capacity./.