On April 28, 2022, in Hanoi, the Agency of Enterprise Development (AED) under the Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI), Global Affairs Canada (GAC), and the UN Development Programme (UNDP) jointly launched today the “COVID-19 Adaptation Programme” for social impact businesses (SIBs) to increase their capacity and refine business models to address the challenges they are facing.

Picture: Ms. Caitlin Wiesen, UNDP Resident Representative in Viet Nam shared in the announcement ceremony

Source: The ISEE- COVID project research team 

In the “Leveraging Viet Nam’s Social Impact Business Ecosystem in Response to COVID-19” project (ISEE-COVID project), businesses receive financial support; market expansion support; support to connect with service providers, investors, etc. The project prioritizes units owned by women and vulnerable people.

At the announcement ceremony, Mr. Le Quang Canh, on behalf of the ISEE- COVID project research team, TDI Consulting and the Institute For Sustainable Development (NEU), presented Development challenges for SIBs due to the impact of Covid-19.

Picture: Mr. Le Quang Canh presented the research in the announcement ceremony

Source: The ISEE- COVID project research team

Mr. Le Quang Canh shared that most SIBs face difficulties in capital, product outputs, supporting information, lack of management skills, etc.

The ISEE-COVID support package is implemented for 3 years from 2022-2024 to support businesses in the fields of agriculture, tourism and education. SIBs have the opportunity to receive support from experts, intermediary organizations accompanying businesses to solve difficult problems in management, business, and product development within 6 months.

In particular, the support package also provides "seed capital" of VND 100 million for each business to build and pilot new business models. In 2022, the Project will support 30 SIBs in the period from June to November 2022.