HCM CITY — In order for HCM City to have 500,000 enterprises by 2020, departments, agencies and districts must have specific solutions to support and encourage business households to transform themselves into enterprises.

Vice Chairman of HCM City People’s Committee Lê Thanh Liêm made the request at the conference to discuss its plan to develop 500,000 enterprises by 2020 held by the committee on Wednesday.

According to Liêm, the plan has been supported by the municipal People’s Council, People’s Committee, departments and agencies. However, to fulfil the target does not mean taking the quality for granted.

To ensure that the plan ushers in real economic effect, HCM City has developed strategic solutions, including reforming administrative procedures, creating favourable conditions for start-ups and enterprises making innovation, and ensuring equal access to resources and business opportunities of enterprises.

Trần Thị Bình Minh, deputy director of the municipal Department of Planning and Investment, said that solutions should not focus only on supporting operations of existing enterprises, but also facilitate the transition of household-model businesses to enterprises.

Specifically, it was necessary to actively promote the benefits of the transition to encourage households, Minh said, adding that advice on business establishment and tax declaration procedures should be made available.

Deputy Director of the HCM City Tax Department Lê Duy Minh said the department was actively disseminating the fruits of the transformation of business model from individual households into enterprises.

"When a business household is transformed into an enterprise, business activities will become more transparent, and that will be reflected in accounting books with a declaration of invoices and vouchers," Minh said.

“With an increased reputation, enterprises will have more chances to expand production and trade with more qualified partners.

“When establishing a professional business, the legal value of transactions will also be higher than those conducted by households, thereby minimising risks in the course of operation.”

The Tax Department also launched a programme to support start-up businesses, including newly-established businesses and businesses converted from households with many practical incentive policies, Minh noted.

Lưu Trung Hoa, Vice Chairman of People’s Committee of District 1, said that in the district, there were 18,000 enterprises and 15,000 business households.

To convert 2,300 business households into enterprises in 2017 and 7,000 business households from now to 2020, the district People’s Committee had conducted surveys on business households which were providing catering and hospitality services and producing garment products, to study their demand and aspirations, so as to encourage them to switch to a business model.

For business households who have converted to enterprises, the district People’s Committee would open workshops to train entrepreneur skills and provide information on supporting policies, stimulus programmes and preferential lending schemes to help them develop in a stable and sustainable manner.

Regarding the city’s plan of having 60,000 enterprises this year, vice chairman of the city’s People’s Committee Liêm said that the target was quite achievable. Of the total, the number of newly-established enterprises was estimated at 43,000 and the rest would be converted from individual business households.

He asked districts and communes to periodically report on the conversion progress as well as the arising difficulties and problems so that the committee would have timely solutions. — VNS