Southeast Asia Information Port News (www.dnyxxg.com) – Digital transformation has become a crucial engine for global enterprises to improve productivity, reduce operating costs, and enhance core competitiveness, and a key support for high-quality economic development in various countries. However, unlike large enterprises that proactively implement digital strategies, for many small businesses in Vietnam, digital transformation is not driven by development needs, but rather a "passive action" forced by compliance pressures. "Catching up with regulations and maintaining operations" has become their primary goal in digital transformation.
According to reports, in the past two years, with the deepening of administrative procedure reforms and the continuous advancement of digital government construction in Vietnam, various enterprises have been required to gradually implement a series of digital compliance requirements, covering multiple core aspects of business management. Specifically, enterprises need to fully utilize electronic invoices and digital signatures, complete electronic tax declarations and payments, labor employment reports, and digital processing of social insurance-related businesses, while simultaneously achieving data interconnection with various government management departments to ensure that business activities are traceable and verifiable throughout the entire process.
For large enterprises with sound governance structures, strong financial resources, and sufficient technological reserves, the advancement of digital compliance is a natural upgrade, and the transformation process is relatively smooth. They can even further optimize management and improve efficiency through digital means. However, it cannot be ignored that small businesses account for over 95% of all businesses in Vietnam. These businesses are small in scale and have limited resources, making digital transformation not a steady upgrade, but a stressful and challenging sprint, with numerous difficulties needing to be overcome.
“Our company is small and doesn’t even have a dedicated IT department. I have to be responsible for the overall operation of the company, market development, and also spend a lot of time studying various digital compliance regulations, personally handling processes such as issuing e-invoices and data reporting. Digital operations allow no room for error; often, right or wrong is just a matter of a single click, and a slight mistake can lead to compliance risks,” Nguyen Van Kho, manager of a 30-employee commercial distribution company in Hanoi, told reporters, expressing the helplessness of small businesses undergoing digital transformation.
Nguyen Van Kho frankly admitted that the company's push for digital systems is not driven by a proactive need for management restructuring and efficiency improvement, but rather a passive response—without implementing digital compliance requirements, the company cannot conduct normal business activities. The primary purpose of digital transformation is merely to meet survival needs, not to achieve high-quality development. This view is shared by many small business owners.
One of the biggest pressures facing small businesses in their digital transformation comes from the various costs associated with it, including both tangible and intangible costs. Tangible costs include initial investments in basic equipment and services such as accounting software, e-invoice systems, and digital signature tools; ongoing costs include annual system maintenance fees, professional implementation consulting fees, and employee digital skills training. Even if the system malfunctions or user errors occur, additional costs for error correction and repairs are incurred. Intangible costs are more subtle. Business owners and employees must spend considerable time learning digital operating procedures and adapting to new work models, diverting their attention from core business operations and potentially causing delays due to unfamiliarity with the procedures.
Further pressure on small businesses stems from the fact that current digital transformation is being driven by high compliance requirements and increasingly clear penalties. Strict compliance standards and clear penalties for various digital operations have led many small business owners to admit that they are forced into the digital transformation process with a "no room for error" mentality. This high-pressure environment has inadvertently distorted the essence of digital transformation—what should have been a gradual process of "learning, trying, improving, and enhancing" has become a risk-control battle where "mistakes are unacceptable and impossible," ultimately increasing business anxiety.
"My company's accountants are extremely tense every day when handling digital declarations and data reporting, fearing even the slightest error. Although various digital systems are interconnected, the system standards and data definitions differ between different management departments. If even one indicator deviates, a series of operational steps need to be adjusted, with repeated checks and reports, wasting a lot of manpower and time," said Fan Fuqiang, manager of a small logistics company in Haiphong, directly pointing to the system integration problems in the current digital transformation process, a common dilemma faced by many small businesses.
In interviews, many small business owners stated that they are not against digital transformation and recognize its value for long-term business development; their core demand lies in the speed and method of transformation. Small businesses lag significantly behind large enterprises in terms of technological adaptability, human resource reserves, and financial resources. However, the current pace of digital transformation has not adequately addressed these differences. Small businesses lack sufficient time for learning, experimentation, and adaptation, forcing them to passively follow and struggle to keep pace with the transformation.
The Vietnamese government has reportedly issued Resolution No. 02/2026/NQ-CP, explicitly aiming to continue improving the business environment, reducing compliance costs for businesses, and providing precise, enterprise-centric services. These resolutions aim to alleviate the burdens on various types of businesses. However, from the perspective of small businesses' actual operations, a significant gap remains between the policy's spirit and its practical implementation. The various pressures of digital transformation have not been effectively alleviated.
Many small business owners have stated that the current digital transformation rollout exhibits a "one-size-fits-all" approach, failing to adequately consider the differences in adaptability between large and small enterprises. “We don’t ask for special policy privileges; we only hope for a transformation roadmap that better suits the realities of small businesses. In the initial stages of transformation, we hope that management departments can allow for a certain degree of technical errors, giving companies room to learn and adapt, and providing more specific operational guidance and policy interpretation, rather than directly punishing them once problems arise,” Fan Fuqiang suggested, echoing the sentiments of many small businesses.
Based on their own operational practices, small business owners generally believe that for digital transformation to truly become a core driving force for business development, rather than simply a compliance burden, multi-party collaboration is needed. On the one hand, it is necessary to accelerate standardization, unify the digital systems of various government departments, clarify data definitions, reduce the need for companies to repeatedly enter data and adjust applications, and lower operational difficulty and time costs. On the other hand, it is necessary to adhere to differentiated support, providing targeted technical support based on company size and industry characteristics. This includes not only issuing written guidance documents but also conducting face-to-face professional consultations and hands-on skills training to help small businesses gradually improve their digital operational capabilities.
From the perspective of government management departments, relevant officials also stated that digital transformation is a gradual process, and technical errors are inevitable for enterprises during the transformation process. Going forward, management departments will further shift their service philosophy, focusing on strengthening guidance and support for enterprises, helping them standardize operations, familiarize themselves with systems, and gradually improve their digital compliance capabilities, rather than simply increasing the pressure on enterprises through penalties. They will strive to ensure that policy spirit and practical implementation resonate in unison, helping small businesses smoothly navigate the transformation period. (End)
