Circular No. 06/2022/TT-BKHĐT guiding certain provisions of Government Decree No. 80/2021/NĐ-CP dated August 26, 2021 detailing and guiding the implementation of certain articles of the Law on Supporting Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs)

CIRCULAR

Guidelines for certain provisions of Decree No. 80/2021/ND-CP dated August 26, 2021 of the Government detailing and guiding the implementation of certain provisions of the Law on Support for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises năm 2021 của Chính phủ quy định chi tiết và hướng dẫn thực hiện các điều của Luật Hỗ trợ doanh nghiệp nhỏ và vừa thực hiện một số trợ

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Pursuant to the Law on Support for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises dated June 12, 2017; tháng 6 năm 2017;

Pursuant to Decree No. 80/2021/ND-CP dated August 26, 2021 of the Government detailing and guiding the implementation of certain provisions of the Law on Support for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises; hỗ trợ doanh nghiệp nhỏ và vừa;

Article 1. Scope

At the proposal of the Director of the Enterprise Development Department;

The Minister of Planning and Investment issues this Circular guiding certain provisions of Decree No. 80/2021/ND-CP dated August 26, 2021 of the Government detailing and guiding the implementation of certain provisions of the Law on Support for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (hereinafter referred to as SMEs) concerning technology support (excluding Clause 5, Article 11 of Decree No. 80/2021/ND-CP); consulting; human resource development (excluding Clause 4, Article 14 of Decree No. 80/2021/ND-CP); supporting SMEs in innovative startups; supporting SMEs in participating in industry clusters and value chains; management content of SME support activities.

PART I

GENERAL PROVISIONS

Article 1. Scope of Regulation and Applicability

1. Scope of regulation: This Circular guides certain provisions of Decree No. 80/2021/ND-CP dated August 26, 2021 of the Government detailing and guiding the implementation of certain provisions of the Law on Support for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (hereinafter referred to as SMEs) concerning technology support (excluding Clause 5, Article 11 of Decree No. 80/2021/ND-CP); consulting; human resource development (excluding Clause 4, Article 14 of Decree No. 80/2021/ND-CP); supporting SMEs in innovative startups; supporting SMEs in participating in industry clusters and value chains; management content of SME support activities.

第二条 组织和实施奖励工作的支出水平，如政府第152/2025/NĐ-CP号决定关于分级授权和奖励领域的分权规定

a) An enterprise established, organized, and operating in accordance with the laws on enterprises and meeting the criteria for identifying SMEs as stipulated in Chapter II of Decree No. 80/2021/ND-CP.

b) Ministries, agencies at the ministerial level, government agencies, People's Committees of provinces and centrally governed cities (hereinafter referred to as provincial-level People's Committees).

c) Agencies and organizations supporting SMEs.

d) Providers of products and services supporting SMEs. In cases where the provider is an organization, it must be established and operate in accordance with Vietnamese law.

e) Agencies, organizations, and individuals related to the support of SMEs.

Article 2. Interpretation of Terms

1. The number of employees participating in social insurance as stipulated in Clause 1, Article 7 of Decree No. 80/2021/ND-CP refers to the total number of employees under indefinite-term labor contracts and those under definite-term labor contracts of less than 36 months of SMEs participating in social insurance. Among them, employees under definite-term labor contracts of less than 36 months may have their social insurance contributions made by the SMEs or other units.

2. The managing director of an SME is a person managing the enterprise as stipulated in Clause 24, Article 4 of the Law on Enterprises No. 59/2020/QH14.

3. SMEs located in particularly difficult socio-economic areas are enterprises whose main office addresses are within one of the areas specified in Appendix III of Decree No. 31/2021/ND-CP dated March 26, 2021 of the Government detailing and guiding the implementation of certain provisions of the Investment Law.

4. Lead enterprises are enterprises established and operating in accordance with Vietnamese law, foreign law, meeting the requirements stipulated in Clause 11, Article 3 of Decree No. 80/2021/ND-CP, and having contracts to purchase products from SMEs.

5. Venture capital funds for innovative startups are funds formed from the contributions of domestic and foreign private investors and established in accordance with Vietnamese law to implement venture capital investments in innovative startups.

6. Electronic document is a document in the form of data messages created online or digitized from paper documents and accurately and completely reflecting the content of the paper document.

7. Agencies and organizations supporting SMEs are public service units under ministries, agencies at the ministerial level, government agencies, provincial-level People's Committees, and public service units under the agencies and units under ministries, agencies at the ministerial level, government agencies, and provincial-level People's Committees that have functions to carry out activities related to supporting enterprise development.

Article 3. Guidance on Implementing Support for SMEs

1. Agencies and organizations providing support to SMEs shall prioritize allocating funds to support SMEs owned by women, SMEs employing many female workers, and social enterprises.

2. Agencies and organizations providing support to SMEs shall select criteria to determine the scale of micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises based on the provisions of Article 5 of Decree No. 80/2021/NĐ-CP, ensuring that enterprises receive the most beneficial level of support.

3. Agencies and organizations providing support to SMEs shall determine the scale of SMEs, SMEs owned by women, and SMEs employing many female workers based on the declaration form stipulated in Appendix 1 of Decree No. 80/2021/NĐ-CP. In cases where information needs to be cross-checked from declarations made by SMEs, agencies and organizations providing support to SMEs shall base their verification on the following documents:

a) Determining the scale of SMEs:

- The balance sheet and profit and loss statement in the financial report.

- A list of employees currently employed by the SME accompanied by social insurance payment receipts. For employees whose social insurance is paid by another entity, the SME must provide a confirmation letter stating that this employee has been covered by social insurance.

b) Determining SMEs employing many female workers: Enterprises meeting the requirements set out in point a, Clause 3 of this Article and having a proportion of female employees complying with the provisions of Clause 8, Article 3 of Decree No. 80/2021/NĐ-CP.

c) Determining SMEs owned by women: Agencies and organizations providing support to SMEs shall check the contribution ratio of female management members in the enterprise at the National Enterprise Registration Portal or in the shareholder register if it is a joint-stock company.

4. SMEs may propose multiple support contents in one application for support needs. At the same time and for the same support content, SMEs can only submit to one agency or organization providing support to SMEs.

5. SMEs are not restricted in the number of times they can receive support or the quantity of support contracts for support contents specified in millions of dong per year per enterprise or millions of dong per year, provided that such support does not exceed the maximum support ratio and limit prescribed in Decree No. 80/2021/NĐ-CP.

6. Agencies and organizations providing support to SMEs shall publicly disclose information about support for SMEs as follows:

a) Registering an account on the national SME support portal (hereinafter referred to as the Portal) at the address https://business.gov.vn and announcing information according to the provisions of point d, Clause 5, Article 28 and Clause 6, Article 29 of Decree No. 80/2021/NĐ-CP.

b) Publicly disclosing on their own information pages the information stipulated in point a of this clause and detailed information about the focal unit, methods of receiving and processing SME support need applications; lists of products and services supporting SMEs provided by their units; databases of SMEs that have received support and related contents.

7. Documents and files related to the content of proposed support for SMEs as stipulated in point b, Clause 4, Article 32 of Decree No. 80/2021/NĐ-CP submitted to agencies and organizations providing support to SMEs shall be copies or scanned copies from original or authentic documents and do not require certification. If necessary, agencies and organizations providing support to SMEs may request SMEs to provide original or authentic documents for information verification.

8. Forms and tables attached as appendices to this Circular and SME support need applications when submitted to competent authorities may be in paper format (direct submission) or electronic format (online submission), and provide original or authentic documents for information verification if required. Electronic documents shall be stored in accordance with legal regulations on archiving and presented when necessary.

9. SMEs can only receive support for advisory services as prescribed in Decree No. 80/2021/NĐ-CP and this Circular when using advisors within the advisor network.

Article 4. Activities supported from the state budget

The agencies and organizations supporting small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) shall determine the activities supported from the state budget as stipulated in Clause 3, Article 32 of Decree No. 80/2021/ND-CP as follows:

1. For advisory support content: consultancy fees for SMEs; field survey activities, attending meetings, and working trips of individual consultants; interpreting services for foreign consultants; management activities of consulting organizations (in cases where the consultant is an organization).

2. For the support content prescribed in Clause 5, Article 22; Point c, d, đ, Clause 6, Article 22; Clause 1, Article 25; Point d, đ, Clause 3, Article 25 of Decree No. 80/2021/ND-CP: implementation shall be carried out according to the guidance provided in Article 16 and Article 19 of this Circular.

3. For the support content prescribed in Clause 2, Article 11; Clause 1, Article 22; Point b, c, Clause 3, Article 22; Point b, c, Clause 4, Article 25; Clause 5, Article 25 of Decree No. 80/2021/ND-CP: implementation shall be carried out according to the provisions of specialized legal documents guiding economic and technical standards and norms. In cases where there are no specific regulations, reference shall be made to the items of work listed in the quotation provided by the supplier on the market, ensuring rationality, legality, effectiveness, and meeting the actual needs of SMEs.

Article 5. Guidance on the Implementation Process of Supporting SMEs

Agencies and organizations supporting SMEs shall implement support for SMEs in accordance with the provisions of Article 32 of Decree No. 80/2021/ND-CP, specifically as follows:

1. The application dossier includes:

a) Application form in accordance with the model prescribed in Appendix 1 issued together with Decree No. 80/2021/ND-CP, clearly stating the content and amount of state budget requested for support, and the quotation from the supplier (if applicable).

b) Relevant documents and files related to the proposed support content: documents determining innovative start-up SMEs as prescribed in Clause 1, 2, Article 15 of this Circular; documents determining SMEs participating in industry clusters and value chains in production and processing sectors as prescribed in Articles 17 and 18 of this Circular; other directly related documents (if applicable).

2. For human resource development support content for SMEs as prescribed in Clauses 1, 2, 3, Article 14 of Decree No. 80/2021/ND-CP: agencies and organizations supporting SMEs shall implement in accordance with the provisions of Section 2, Chapter II of this Circular.

3. For support content regarding technology, advisory services, support for innovative start-up SMEs, and support for SMEs participating in industry clusters and value chains as prescribed in Clauses 1, 2, 3, 4, Article 11; Clause 2, Article 13; Article 22; Article 25 of Decree No. 80/2021/ND-CP: agencies and organizations supporting SMEs shall implement in accordance with the provisions of Clause 3, Article 32 of Decree No. 80/2021/ND-CP (contract model at Appendix 1 of this Circular).

4. Agencies and organizations supporting SMEs shall review the dossiers, compile the support request needs of SMEs, and approve the annual or quarterly support plan for SMEs. The selection of suppliers to implement the support plan for SMEs shall be carried out in accordance with the legal provisions on public procurement.

Article 6. Management of Support Activities for SMEs

1. General Management

a) General management activities include: communication activities about support work, support content for SMEs; organizing conferences, seminars to guide, summarize support work for SMEs; organizing evaluation teams to assess the implementation of support work for SMEs; conducting surveys to understand support needs for SMEs to prepare plans and budgets for support in the planning year.

b) The Ministry of Planning and Investment may allocate up to a maximum of 1% of the total central state budget funds allocated annually for supporting SMEs to manage general support activities for SMEs nationwide.

c) The lead agency of ministries, ministerial-level agencies, and government agencies (units assigned the main responsibility to develop policies, organize implementation, evaluate, and report on the results of support activities for SMEs) and Provincial Departments of Planning and Investment may allocate up to a maximum of 2% of the total state budget funds allocated annually for supporting SMEs to manage general support activities for SMEs within their respective sectors, fields, and areas of responsibility.

2. Direct Management of Support Activities

Agencies and organizations supporting SMEs may allocate up to a maximum of 5% of the state budget funds allocated annually for supporting SMEs to directly manage support activities for SMEs, including:

a) Support activities for SMEs: travel expenses; overtime work; communication costs; organizing meetings and seminars; hiring experts; direct surveys at enterprises to decide on support; other activities directly serving support work for SMEs.

b) Activities of the Selection Council for Innovative Start-up SMEs as prescribed in Clause 3, Article 21 of Decree No. 80/2021/ND-CP: reviewing applications and documents of innovative start-up SMEs; hiring experts; overtime work; communication costs; organizing meetings to evaluate enterprise applications; convening meetings to review the results of selecting innovative start-up SMEs; other activities directly related to the council's operations.

Chapter II

SUPPORT FOR SMALL AND MEDIUM-SIZED ENTERPRISES

Section 1

TECHNOLOGY AND ADVISORY SUPPORT

Article 7. Technology Support

Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) shall be supported with technology according to the content and level of support stipulated in Clauses 1, 2, 3, and 4 of Article 11 of Decree No. 80/2021/NĐ-CP. The agencies and organizations supporting SMEs shall implement such support in accordance with the provisions of Articles 4 and 5 of this Circular and specific regulations as follows:

1. SMEs shall be supported for costs related to leasing or purchasing digital transformation solutions that have been announced on the portal or website of the Ministry of Information and Communications or the provider's website.

2. SMEs shall assess their readiness for digital transformation to propose appropriate support. SMEs shall use the digital transformation assessment tool available at the following addresses: https://digital.business.gov.vn send a text message https://dbi.gov.vn or issued by the agencies and organizations supporting SMEs.

3. Agencies and organizations supporting SMEs shall use the results of the digital transformation readiness assessment of SMEs to consider appropriate support based on the capacity of the SMEs to receive such support.

Article 8. Consultants

1. Consultants as prescribed in Point a Clause 1 of Article 13 of Decree No. 80/2021/NĐ-CP include:

a) Individual consultants who are Vietnamese citizens (excluding civil servants as defined by the Civil Servant Law) and foreign individuals working in Vietnam.

b) Consulting organizations which are legal entities established and operating in accordance with Vietnamese laws, having the function of consulting for businesses.

2. Registration to join the consultant network:

a) Individuals and organizations providing consulting services shall submit registration files to the relevant ministry or equivalent agency to be recognized. Documents in foreign languages must be accompanied by certified Vietnamese translations.

b) Consultants shall access the portal, register, and obtain an account from the Ministry of Planning and Investment to update information into the consultant network database. Consultants shall bear full responsibility under the law for the accuracy of the information publicly disclosed on the portal.

3. Updating Consultant Information:

a) When new information or documents related to qualifications and experience arise, consultants shall update them in their consultant file on the portal; simultaneously sending them to the relevant ministry or equivalent agency to supplement the recognized consultant file.

b) In cases where errors in previously provided information are discovered without changing the consultant’s qualifications in terms of education, professional expertise, and consulting experience, consultants shall update the information on the portal; simultaneously notifying the recognizing ministry or equivalent agency to review and correct the information.

4. Consultants shall be exempted from fees for participating in standardized training courses on skills, procedures, and knowledge in consulting organized by ministries or equivalent agencies as stipulated in Clause 3 of Article 10 of this Circular.

Article 9. Consultant Network

1. Formation of the Consultant Network

a) Based on the sectors and fields they oversee, ministries and equivalent agencies shall issue one or more decisions (in the format specified in Appendix 2 of this Circular) detailing the scope of consulting, criteria for recognizing consultants, and circumstances under which consultants may be removed from the network due to violations of the law or other specified conditions by the ministries or equivalent agencies.

Criteria for recognizing consultants should clearly specify educational qualifications, professional expertise, work experience, and other conditions as required by specialized laws and management regulations.

b) Ministries and equivalent agencies shall recognize consultants joining the network themselves or authorize one or more units subordinate to them (hereinafter referred to as recognition units) to recognize consultants joining the network and review cases where consultants are removed from the network.

- Activities for recognizing consultants joining the network include: reviewing registration files for joining the network; contacting and guiding consultants to complete their files; recognizing consultants within the network; guiding consultants to register accounts and update information into the consultant database on the portal; confirming for consultants to be publicly disclosed on the portal.

- Activities for removing consultants from the network include: reviewing consultant files within the network; contacting and informing consultants about being removed from the consultant network; compiling a list of consultants to be removed from the network; withdrawing consultant files from the portal.

- Recognition units shall publicly disclose the scope of consulting, criteria for recognizing consultants joining the network, and lists of consultants within the network and those removed from the network on the websites of the ministries or equivalent agencies or on the websites of the recognition units.

- Recognition units shall register and be granted one or more accounts on the portal by the Ministry of Planning and Investment to directly carry out activities as prescribed in Point b Clause 1 of this Article.

2. Management, Operation, and Maintenance of the Consultant Network

a) Procurement and construction of software to manage the consultant network; procurement, upgrading, and maintenance of hardware infrastructure, transmission services, servers, and related services for storing and operating the consultant network; establishment, maintenance, and updating of consultant network data.

b) Organizing conferences, seminars, summaries, and evaluations of the formation, management, operation, and maintenance of the consultant network.

c) Activities of recognizing consultants joining the network or removing them from the network as prescribed in Point b Clause 1 of this Article. The maximum cost for implementing recognition activities or removal from the network for each consultant shall not exceed 300 thousand VND and shall be paid through a lump-sum payment to the recognition unit.

3. Training and Development of the Consultant Network

a) Recognition units shall directly organize or cooperate with service providers to conduct standardized training courses on skills, procedures, and knowledge for consultants within their networks.

b) Content of organizing training courses for consultants:

Article 10. Advisory Support

Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) shall be supported with advisory services according to the content and level of support prescribed in Clause 2, Article 13 of Decree No. 80/2021/NĐ-CP. The agencies and organizations supporting SMEs shall implement such support in accordance with the provisions of Article 4 and Article 5 of this Circular.

Section 2 SUPPORT FOR DEVELOPING HUMAN RESOURCES

Article 11. Support for Developing Human Resources

The support for developing human resources prescribed in Clauses 1, 2, and 3 of Article 14 of Decree No. 80/2021/NĐ-CP is an activity providing training support to SMEs. Agencies and organizations supporting SMEs shall implement such support in accordance with the provisions of Clauses 1 and 2 of Article 5 of this Circular and the following specific provisions:

1. The training unit is an agency or organization supporting SMEs (when directly providing training services) or a service provider (when the agency or organization supporting SMEs does not directly provide training services).

2. The direct business management training course prescribed in Point a, Clause 1, Article 14 of Decree No. 80/2021/NĐ-CP includes basic business management training courses and specialized business management training courses.

3. Online training courses through available e-learning tools such as Zoom Cloud Meetings, Microsoft Teams, Google Classroom, and similar tools:

a) Based on the plan to organize online training courses in the year, the training unit purchases accounts for available e-learning tools and supplementary software (hereinafter referred to as tools), rents special equipment for online training courses (hereinafter referred to as special equipment) suitable for the scale of organizing training courses.

b) In cases where tools and special equipment are purchased or rented on a per-course basis, the costs are calculated based on the actual expenses incurred per course. In cases where packages of services are purchased or rented monthly, quarterly, or annually, the costs are allocated based on the expenses for organizing each training course.

4. The training unit may organize training courses prescribed in Clauses 1 and 3 of Article 14 of Decree No. 80/2021/NĐ-CP in a combined form of direct and online training through available e-learning tools (hereinafter referred to as combined training form) provided that the state budget support remains unchanged and when at least 30% of the total number of trainees participate in direct training, specifically:

a) 100% of trainees attend direct training: instructors teach entirely online, or combine direct and online teaching.

b) At least 30% of trainees attend direct training, the rest attend online training: instructors teach entirely in person, entirely online, or combine direct and online teaching.

c) Based on the selection of the combined training form prescribed in Points a and b of Clause 4 of this Article, the training unit shall prepare the corresponding budget estimate.

Article 12. Direct Training on Business Start-up and Business Management

The direct training support prescribed in Clauses 1 and 3 of Article 14 of Decree No. 80/2021/NĐ-CP shall be implemented in accordance with the following provisions:

Article 13. Online training on business start-up and management

The online training support provided for in Clause 2, Article 14 of Decree No. 80/2021/NĐ-CP shall be implemented in accordance with the following provisions: