1. Recommendations for the government/policy makers
   1. Properly aware and assess the roles of SMEs and start-up firms in the national economy system

The Korean government soon realized the roles of SMEs, especially start-up firms in economic reform after the financial crisis is 1997. They published some Law and Regulations on SMEs support since the end of the Korean War, some of which are the SMEs Bank Law (July 1961) and the SMEs Cooperation Law (December 1961). In addition, the governmental institutions and banks to support SMEs were born really soon, they were able to merge into a comprehensive and trustworthy “system” to maintain the health of SMEs. This reflects the early awareness of the Korean government in the roles of SMEs. In Vietnam, the roles of new enterprises need to be further considered. Besides the measures to enhance the performance of state-owned enterprises, we need to have intensive measures to support SMEs, especially start-up firms because they are the strategic instrument in economic growth. Obviously, when joining WTO – an international playground, SMEs in Vietnam in its current state will find it hard to compete..

To fully aware of the condition as well as roles of these enterprises, we need to conduct surveys and researches to find out at which proportion SMEs have contributed to the country’s GDP and other growth indexes. Further, we based on these indexes to evaluate the potential and at what extent the establishment of new firms can reinforce the growth rate of the economy as a whole.

2. Create a suitable environment for SMEs and start-up firms

Since the very beginning state of economic reform, regulations concerning SMEs and start-ups activities were clearly and specifically declared. They were also improved through times to adapt to the economic and social conditions of each time phase. Besides the synchronized legal environment, they also own a set of solutions for SMEs: since they start the business till dismissal. The Korean government always tries to create favorable business environment for the growth of start-up firms and SMEs. To minimize the gap between chaebol firms and start-up firms, the government established many institutions and associations to support start-ups firms, namely SMBA, SMBC, KOTEC… as well as provide guarantee for these firms to receive funds from commercial banks with preferential interest rates. When SMEs encounter hardship during operation, the government also comes up with business incubators to help them overcome problems by legal consulting, opening fairs, malls to increase the chance of trading and finding business partners.

For any nation in the world, favorable business environment is the basic factor, not only for SMEs, but also for big corporations to grow. Vietnam is no exception. Nowadays in Vietnam, the business environment is thriving more than ever before. Business law, finance law, credit monetary trading, labor situation have been improved a lot with the foundation, adjustment, supplement of the Business Code 2005, Investment Code 2005, State Bank Code and Credit Institutions Code 2003… These Codes basically have no discrimination among different business sectors. Moreover, we also have other regulations concerning the operation of SMEs, namely Official Letter No. 681/CP-KTN on June, 26^th 1998 by the Government Office on strategies orientation and SMEs development policies, Decree No. 90/2001/ND-CP on November, 23^rd 2001 on support SMEs. These regulations only emphasize on the most basic matters and have yet compete or consistent. Also, the management level is still not flexible in applying those regulations, leading to redundancy in procedures and confusion in dealing with the legal system.

Discrimination between big corporations and SMEs is another factor with negative impact on the business environment. Although the policies of the government clearly state that all business sectors needed to be equally treated, there still exists discrimination from some government officials in bank loans, access to preferential policies, land use, information access on exporting market, staff training… Moreover, the social environment also has trong impact on business operation of highly sensitive firms like start-ups and SMEs. That is because there still exists some obsolete prejudice on these firms such as counterfeited goods, smuggling or commercial fraud.