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 Business
Development Services have just become popular in the last few
years. Decree 87 issued in 2003 is the first legal document that
recognizes and regulates consulting activities. Government
officials usually perceive BDS as a regular service industry
like catering or tourism, and there is no clear development
strategy. In my view, BDS should be considered a knowledge
industry that provides inputs for other manufacturing and
service industries. The Enterprise Law issued five years ago has
significantly increased the number of newly registered
enterprises, but by now, the effect of this Law has started to
decline. To give the corporate sector another impetus for growth
and competitiveness, the Government needs to make another move.
In my opinion, a BDS development strategy or paper could be the
right tool. I strongly believe that the Government needs a
policy to further develop BDS, perhaps by offering vouchers.
Obviously, any support policies should be in conformity with
commitments to AFTA or the upcoming WTO accession.
From the demand side, I believe that the majority of businesses
understand the need and importance of using BDS, but the use of
BDS is still limited because businesses lack confidence in the
quality of services provided and are concerned about the risk of
disclosing their company information. From the supply side, most
consulting companies in Vietnam are not yet professional
services providers. There are many retired officials now working
as consultants; they rely heavily on personal contacts and
relationships, but less on professional competency. For example,
a retired official working as a consultant may have early access
to information about upcoming import-export policies or a new
road to be built, and then give out this information to
businesses as "consulting services”.
To improve the BDS industry, the State should have regulations
on professional and ethical standards. In addition, pubic
information should be generally disclosed and available in a
transparent manner.
Mr. Tran Kim Hao – Chief Editor of Economic Management Magazine,
the Central Institute for Economic Management.
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 Many
Vietnamese SMEs do not recognize the importance of information.
For example, many export businesses have very little knowledge
about quality requirements or packaging preferences in their
product markets. To address this issue, the Government as well
as BDS providers should pay more attention to awareness raising
activities to introduce more BDS to businesses. For example, we
actively marketed our services through direct mail, fax and
email to over 15,000 businesses last year. The most important
thing in awareness raising is to avoid providing generic
information and instead to communicate value and focus on
measurable benefits.
The BDS market in Vietnam is growing fast and the State's
management is lagging behind. Currently there is no
comprehensive database of BDS suppliers and no one knows exactly
how many consulting service providers, including local and
foreign, are operating in the country. Thus, potential customers
of BDS do not have sufficient information to select appropriate
service providers. I understand that the Ministry of Science,
Technology and Environment is going to issue a regulation on
consulting services related to quality certification in an
attempt to improve the quality of consulting services in
Vietnam.
Mr. Tran Dinh Van, Director, Directorate for Standards and
Quality (STAMEQ).
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