Reviewing news about small and medium-sized enterprises in Vietnam, data from the Ministry of Planning and Investment shows that in September 2015, the whole country had 7,042 newly established enterprises, but 10,111 enterprises were dissolved or stopped. operation, in November the situation was better, 9,311 newly established enterprises and only 4,768 enterprises temporarily ceased operation, down more than 65% compared to October. Will the situation be better when the whole year of 2015? 99,754 businesses were established, up 30% compared to last year. According to the General Statistics Office, although the macro economy has shown signs of stability, under competitive pressure and especially in the trend of deep integration, business activities of the business sector continue to face challenges. many difficulties. There have been 62,713 Vietnamese enterprises temporarily suspended operations in the past 11 months, an increase of over 21% over the same period and mainly focused on small and medium enterprises.

To get a panoramic view and be prepared, let's take a look at the strengths and opportunities that Vietnamese businesses have when signing these agreements as well as the limitations and challenges through the signing of these agreements. SWOT model.

S (Strengths) - Strengths that Vietnamese enterprises have advantages: (1) large young workforce, skillful, quick to acquire knowledge; (2) Vietnam is assessed as a country with a peaceful environment - this will be a favorable factor and an advantage when foreign investors consider to decide to invest in Vietnam; (3) low-level labor with low hiring costs; (4) The geographical distance between localities in the territory of Vietnam is relatively close compared to other countries in the region, so it is convenient to distribute, supply and transport goods.

W (Weaknesses) - Weaknesses: That is, Vietnamese enterprises (1) have not yet supported and cooperated to develop together in the business community; (2) there is not yet an optimal and transparent operating system; (3) cumbersome operating system; a lot of waste, so the cost of products/services is higher than those of similar products/services of countries in the same region; (4) the labor discipline of employees is not high, causing Vietnamese enterprises to take a long time to resolve cases and matters; (5) low labor productivity (according to the report of the Labor Productivity Institute of the ILO: Vietnam's labor productivity is the lowest in the Asia-Pacific region), so Vietnamese enterprises have to pay for high labor cost (high working time) but low productivity; (6) technology and machinery of Vietnamese enterprises are mostly imported, so the high production costs directly affect the cost of products/services; (7) most Vietnamese businesses have not yet given their customers the best care; distribution channels are not convenient; supply chain is not optimal.

O (Opportunities) - Opportunities: When signing free trade agreements, Vietnamese enterprises have opportunities to (1) expand their business and expand their markets; (2) Vietnamese enterprises can sell goods to countries in the region almost like domestic sales; (3) there are many opportunities to attract foreign investment because at this time, investors see Vietnam and other countries in the region as a common market, a common place of production, a place with human resources of similar value. cheap for deep and wide cooperation; (4) Vietnamese enterprises can approach more groups of customers with richer and more diverse needs, helping them to expand business opportunities; (5) along with the development of countries in the region, in order to integrate with the general economy, Vietnamese enterprises will also promote the development of science and technology.

T (Threats) - Challenges: In addition to the above potential opportunities, Vietnamese enterprises will also face many challenges such as (1) there will be more strong, diverse and complex competitors. ; (2) existing and potential customers have more opportunities to access foreign products/services with better quality and more reasonable prices; (3) the countries participating in the agreement have high-tech technology, highly qualified, dynamic, creative and hard-working human resources; optimized operating system; ...so their operating/production costs will be lower;

Therefore, to be able to blend in and develop together in the current economic context, Vietnamese businesses need to seriously invest in building long-term development strategies; quality; service; system; reduce waste; building a team of employees who work smarter and especially need to adapt quickly to the harsh and fierce changes of the current market.