Small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) are expected to generate between 3.5 and 4 million jobs during the period 2011-2015.

The target was announced by the Business Development Department at the Ministry of Planning and Investment, during a seminar on the development plan for SMEs until 2015, held in the Mekong Delta city of Can Tho on June 28.

The seminar discussed how to improve the competitiveness of SMEs and create an favourable and healthy business and investment environment for them to develop further and contribute more to the national economy.

Under the plan, by 2015, around 350,000 new small and medium sized enterprises will have been set up and between 8-10 percent of them will involve in exports.

The level of investment injected into the economy by SMEs will account for 40 percent of all total social investment.

To reach these targets, the seminar put forward various measures, including fine tuning the legal framework; improving access to finance and credit; using capital effectively; upgrading outdated technologies; developing human resources and promoting trade.

From 2006 to 2010, more than 320,000 SMEs were set up across the country, generating 2.7 million jobs./.