Decree 80 - a lever for small and medium enterprises to break through

In Lam Dong , agricultural processing and export is one of the two industries that receive a lot of support from Decree 80/2021/ND-CP of the Government.

Improve competitiveness

Our Party and State always identify small and medium enterprises (SMEs) as an important force in economic development, job creation, and improving people's lives. Therefore, many policies have been introduced to support SMEs to overcome barriers in capital, technology, human resources, and markets. Accordingly, SMEs can be supported in many key areas: technological innovation, digital transformation, human resource training, management consulting, value chain participation, product development, and trade promotion. This is an opportunity for businesses to improve their competitiveness and move towards sustainable development.

The practice of Decree 80 has brought up real stories, affirming that policy is a "lever" to help SMEs overcome difficulties and innovate. Across the country, many agricultural processing enterprises in the southern provinces have been supported with legal advice at 100% of the cost (up to 50 million VND/year), thereby completing export documents, expanding markets and significantly increasing revenue. However, there are also many enterprises that are still confused, lack information, do not know how to access support resources, the gap between policy and business practice is still quite large.

Businesses proactively seize opportunities

In Lam Dong, with the strength of high-tech agriculture , most of the typical enterprises in the field of agricultural processing and import-export account for a large proportion of local support programs. A typical success story is the Hong An Production and Trade Company Limited (Duc Trong commune), which has received comprehensive support, with an intensive management training course (up to 70% of the cost according to Article 18, Decree 80), preferential capital for equipment investment and improved management capacity. Thanks to that, the unit has improved the closed production process of Ganoderma lucidum, applied new technology, reduced financial pressure and expanded export markets, from a small enterprise to a sustainable farmer linkage model.

Ms. Pham Thi An - Director of Hong An Company shared: “The policy from Decree 80 came very timely, supporting us a lot in the difficult economic context. Thanks to training courses and capital, we not only improved our management capacity but also built a high-quality workforce, helping our products compete better in the market. This is really a "push" for small businesses like us to strive for sustainable development."

Similarly, in trade, Khuc Gia Thanh Import Export Trading Service Co., Ltd., a small and medium-sized enterprise, has met the criteria of Decree 80, taking advantage of export legal consultancy support (100% of costs according to Article 16) and connecting value chains, overcoming market barriers, significantly increasing coffee and fertilizer purchase sales. These successes bring direct economic benefits (20-30% revenue growth after support), promoting local value chains, creating jobs for hundreds of rural workers.

To put policy into practice

In addition to the achieved results, a number of SMEs, especially the micro group, still face difficulties in administrative and legal procedures, making it difficult to fully enjoy the policy despite meeting the conditions. "The main problems lie in the requirement to prove the scale through financial reports, social insurance records (according to Article 5), lack of human resources to prepare the project, while the actual processing time is often longer than the regulation of 14 days due to changes in the structure of ministries and branches in 2025", Ms. Nguyen Thi Cam Nhung - Director of Hoang Nguyen Garden Company Limited shared.

In fact, although the rejection rate of applications is only about 20-30% according to local reports, it still reduces the effectiveness of the policy. Therefore, there needs to be stronger involvement from business associations and specialized agencies in providing detailed instructions, simplifying the process and enhancing communication, so that the policy can truly reach all businesses.

In addition, the implementation of Decree 80 in Lam Dong still faces difficulties such as limited access to information for small businesses in rural areas and slow processing time. Vice President of Lam Dong Provincial Business Association Nguyen Thi Thu Hien shared: “Although the policy is very clear and has been assigned targets to localities, the ability to access information and business capacity is still limited. Many small businesses do not know about Decree 80 or do not have the human resources to plan, propose, and prepare documents. The time to start implementing support projects is very slow, like this year 2025, it was not until September that we had implementation information for businesses due to the reasons of merging ministries and provinces. I hope that from 2026 onwards, support projects will be implemented earlier, and at the same time receive strong communication support so that many businesses will know about the Government's support policies for them.”

Source: https://baolamdong.vn/nghi-dinh-80-don-bay-de-doanh-nghiep-nho-va-vua-but-pha-395045.html