Speakers discuss the role of social media in helping SMEs participate in global value chains at a forum held on October 17in HCM City. (Photo: VNA) HCM City (VNS/VNA) - Small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs),which make up 90 percent of businesses in Vietnam, should take advantage of newmarketing tools like social media to have access to global value chains,experts said at a meeting held in Ho Chi Minh City on October 17.
Speaking at the forum on SMEs, Mai Huynh, arepresentative of a Facebook team based in Singapore, said there were 53million active Vietnamese Facebook users on a monthly basis.
Of the figure, 96 percent use Facebook ontheir smartphones, while 68 percent of Vietnamese view pages about enterprisesselling products on Facebook, creating a huge potential for online marketing.
Tran Thị Thanh Tam, deputy director of theSMEs Promotion Centre of the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI),said that SMEs were expected to have great opportunities to enter the globalmarket in the digital economy.
SMEs should take advantage of digitalapplications and minimise logistics and transaction costs by using the powerfultools of social media, she said.
The fourth industrial revolution, which isdigitally based, can help SMEs purchase goods and services in global valuechains, opening up market access, attracting foreign investment, and accessingadvanced production technology, according to Tam.
However, most SMEs lack internationalcustomers and markets. Only 21 percent of Vietnamese SMEs participate in globalvalue chains.
This challenge results in SMEs being lesslikely to benefit from the advantages of FDI, which include technologytransfer, knowledge transfer and enhanced productivity.
In addition, a major barrier for SMEs isthe high cost of technology, while knowledge about e-commerce is still limited,hindering growth.
More than 90 percent of Vietnamesebusinesses are SMEs. They often encounter difficulties in accessing capital andtechnologies and lack management skills and connectivity, all of which aremajor hindrances when joining supply chains.
Links among producers and distributors insupply chains are weak and have created unhealthy competition, making it moredifficult for Vietnamese to join big markets.
Though the Government has stepped up reformof institutions and improved the business environment, experts said it shouldminimise administrative procedures to help firms join supply chains.
The forum was organised by the VietnamChamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) and Facebook. -VNA
VNA
