Attachment J.10_MPI and VWU Information Sheet.docx

This document presents the input that USAID received from the GVN counterparts—MPI and the VWU during the activity design process. This information is included here for offerors’ reference only and should not be considered as required or binding conditions of the RFP.

Attachment J.10 Ministry of Planning Investment (MPI) Information Sheet for Potential Offerors Desired Objectives and Priority Areas

1. Improving competitiveness and promoting the internationalization of the private sector

· Create national strategic products that are made by Vietnamese private enterprises, where the bulk of value addition is in Vietnam, thus shifting from the strategy from "Made in Vietnam" to "Made by Vietnam".

· Strengthen the capacity of the private sector to address challenges and bottlenecks in key sectors and areas that are hampering national competitive advantage.

· Enhance management capacity and innovation mindset through business consulting and technical assistance to business owners to enhance their vision and strategic planning process.

· Increase access to useful, affordable, and effective training services, and high-quality on-site business consultancy that is flexible, in-depth, and tailored to the characteristics and needs of each enterprise, resulting in improved management capacity and workforce skills.

· Develop firm-level performance assessment tools to help businesses identify strengths and weaknesses in production and business operations.

· Increase the number of enterprises adopting innovative technology, mastering and developing core modern technologies to produce quality, competitive and eco-friendly products. Strengthen firms’ capacity to apply information technology and digital technologies in production and business operations.

· Increase the number of private sector firms and/or projects successfully participating in regional and international markets.

· Promote internationalization of Vietnamese enterprises to enable them to actively integrate and expand investment to the world market through trade promotion, joint venture, cooperation, mergers and acquisitions. Facilitate the listing of Vietnamese firms on international stock exchanges such as Korea, Japan, Singapore, USA, etc. to help them raise capital more efficiently from international investors.

2. Promoting sustainable and inclusive business in the private sector -- clean, green, energy-efficient, and eco-friendly

· Strengthen policy instruments that encourage and promote inclusive business, applying eco-friendly and energy-efficient processes and production to mitigate the negative effects of climate change

· Support the development of a sustainable, inclusive business ecosystem (buyer incentives, applications/platform to support a sustainable, inclusive business model, etc.)

· Improve the performance and impact of sustainable and inclusive businesses.

· Increase the number of potential businesses that successfully apply sustainable business models

· Improve the quantity and quality of products and services of businesses that are eco-friendly, especially those led by low-income people, vulnerable groups, and those affected by climate change.

3. Providing support to businesses led by vulnerable groups (including women, ethnic minorities, person with disabilities, etc.) to promote sustainable economic growth

· Improve business performance in terms of increased revenue, profits, income of workers, market expansion, brand upgrading, etc.

· Increase access to capital, technology, human resources, information and markets.

· Support policy reforms and promote initiatives to support businesses owned by vulnerable groups.

4. Implementing impactful reforms of the business environment and capacity building for relevant stakeholders involved in private sector development

· Develop a toolkit to measure, quantify, monitor, and evaluate the results of business environment reforms at national and provincial levels, facilitating comparison with regional and international benchmarks.

· Develop a set of indicators for measuring competitiveness and enterprise development, at national and provincial levels, that can be used for comparison with regional and international benchmarks.

· Reduce bottlenecks and barriers in the investment and business legal system.

· Strengthen policy instruments to support enterprise development in line with international practices.

· Improve the quality and effectiveness of government-business dialogues by assisting competent state agencies to develop and deploy user-friendly technology platforms for receiving citizen petitions and feedback, sharing information, and responding to the business community.

· Improve the quantity and quality of public and private sector business support services.

· Enhance the capacity of partners and stakeholders in supporting enterprise development in the context of international integration.

Vietnam Women’s Union (VWU) Information Sheet for Potential Offerors

Desired objectives:

1. Enhance the management and business development capacity for women-owned businesses and women-led household businesses, especially ethnic minority women, disadvantaged and disabled women. Build a network to support women in starting and developing their businesses.

2. To support and promote women-owned enterprises and household businesses to apply technologies, science and technology, sustainable business models suitable to the development needs of each region in order to increase value addition, business performance, and efficiency, while promoting preservation of ethnic culture.

3. Review and propose laws and guiding documents to create a gender-sensitive and gender-inclusive business environment.

4. Improve the operational efficiency of the Vietnam Women's Union, particularly capacity building for the Vietnam Women's Union officials from the central to local levels to support women in economic development.

Desired results:

· Laws and legal documents on business environment that facilitate the private sector, while ensuring gender mainstreaming and gender sensitivity;

· The percentage of women-owned enterprises to comprise 35% of total number of private enterprises after the end of the project;

· Supporting 10% of women-owned micro-enterprises, equivalent to about 28,500 enterprises, applying technologies to improve competitiveness (new technologies, new business processes, sustainable business models, etc.), paving their way to become small and medium-sized businesses;

· Ensure that at least 70% of women-owned businesses and household businesses receiving support from the project have improved revenue and profit, contributing to the private sector’s share of the country's GDP;

· Double the income of household businesses owned by women and ethnic minorities, and at the same time create more jobs to ensure income for female workers;

· 100% of WU's officials from central to provincial levels in charge of supporting women in economic development benefit from training and capacity-building;

· Development of an additional 10-15 women entrepreneur associations/clubs in provinces and municipalities, especially in big cities of Vietnam and improve the quality of activities for these units to create a large community for women businesses;

· Development of an additional 10-15 entities to support women in starting their businesses and developing businesses nationwide, facilitating market promotion and building a network of business support services for women;

· Explore the establishment of a Fund for supporting women in starting and developing their businesses.