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| The BambooVina Production and Trading Co., Ltd. is one of small- and medium-sized enterprises in Thanh Hoa province__Photo: VNA |
The Ministry of Justice has released a draft decision approving the Program on interdisciplinary legal assistance for small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), household businesses and cooperatives for the 2026-31 period. The Program aims to build a beneficiary-centered comprehensive and modern legal assistance ecosystem, supported by digital technology application and aligned with socio-economic development strategies.
Under the Program, legal assistance would follow a demand-, matter-, and sector-specific approach, instead of the current method of disseminating knowledge only. Surveys, feedback reviews and data analyses would be regularly conducted to identify legal challenges facing SMEs, household businesses and cooperatives. Priority would be given to such topics as land, tax, investment, labor, environment, quality standards, international trade and digital transformation. Hence, support activities would be more intensive and focus on practice for businesses.
The Program sets a crucial task of comprehensively adjusting the legal framework on legal assistance for SMEs. Particularly, a new decree replacing Government Decree 55/2019/ND-CP would be issued soon, expanding legal assistance to household businesses and cooperatives, which are not yet fully accessible to professional legal services.
At the same time, financial policies for legal counseling activities would be modified to be more substantial by issuing a new circular replacing the Ministry of Finance’s Circular 64/2021/TT-BTC on state budget funds for legal assistance activities for SMEs. Specifically, expenditure norms would be increased to involve lawyers and legal experts in the legal counseling network.
The Program is also expected to uphold the role of business associations, unions of cooperatives and household businesses’ representatives in disseminating legal information and reporting problems arising in reality. A model linking the State, enterprises, experts and associations would help form a more effective and practical multidimensional support network.
As stated in the Program, at least 80 percent of enterprises are accessible to legal information via digital platforms, 90 percent of trainees satisfied with training quality, and 80 percent of legal counseling requests fully resolved.
The Program also proposes free legal assistance for micro-enterprises, household businesses and cooperatives, helping them raise competitiveness and market accessibility.- (VLLF)
