Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) owned by women in Vietnam still find it difficult to carry out digital transformation because they lack knowledge when applying innovative technologies and don’t have many opportunities to access technical support.

According to the results of a survey conducted by the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI), prior to Covid-19, only 20 per cent of businesses were interested in digital transformation, but after six months of the pandemic more than 70 per cent of businesses were paying attention to the process and more than half were implementing digital transformation. In particular, more than 90 per cent of female-owned businesses hope to participate in digital transformation.

Although digital transformation is an inexorable trend, female-owned SMEs in Vietnam face a lack of knowledge and don’t have many opportunities to access technical support regarding digital transformation, according to Ms. Linda Percy, Acting Deputy Director of the US Agency for International Development (USAID) in Vietnam.

USAID and the Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI) have published a range of tools and documents on the website for digital transformation at the country’s supporting portal for enterprises.

To date, they have introduced support activities to nearly 7,000 women entrepreneurs from SMEs, business support organizations, and other stakeholders.

To support the needs of female-owned businesses during Industry 4.0, the SME Council at the Vietnam Women Entrepreneurs Council (VWEC) has coordinated with partners to deploy many training courses to improve the corporate governance capacity of female entrepreneurs in the digital economy and improve understanding and skills regarding digital technology, online marketing, and so on.

Within the framework of the Digital Transformation Support Program for Female Enterprises, which was kicked off in 2021, VWEC has been holding seminars and forums to discuss methods and processes in digital transformation and effectively approaching financial resources for the process.