"This free guide will help social entrepreneurs better understand the complexities of setting up a social enterprise in eight ASEAN countries, the options that are available to them, and the pros and cons of different legal forms. By providing detailed information on different legal structures that social enterprises can employ this guide offers well informed advice on registering with ministries, the documentation that is required and the licenses and permits needed to carry out certain business activities. It outlines governance and regulatory obligations and provides guidance on the taxes that apply to such organisations and expenses that are tax deductible. Case studies are also included to illustrate how social enterprises have responded to specific challenges."

"Vietnam has experienced a prolonged period of economic growth since its transition to a market-based economy through the Doi Moi2 reforms in the 1980s. It is now a middle-income country and one of the most dynamic emerging economies in Southeast Asia. The proportion of people in extreme poverty fell from greater than 70% in the early 1990s to about 10% in 2016, according to the World Bank.

Vietnam’s strong export sector has often been credited with this success, and indeed Vietnam is one of the most globalised countries in the region, with its exports as share of GDP at the highest of any populous country. More recently, Vietnam’s large and emerging middle-class market has attracted significant investment, and the country leapfrogged into a highly tech-enabled age. Groups of young startup entrepreneurs are aspiring to disrupt nearly all sectors of the economy with new technologies, spurred on both by televised pitching competitions like “Shark Tank” and significant government support for startups and SMEs.

In this context, the Dutch Good Growth Fund undertook a diagnostic study of the Vietnam entrepreneurial ecosystem, with a deeper evaluation of the financial offering for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs)."