Currently, small and medium enterprises are called to play an important role in the economic development of Vietnam, especially in employment generation and contribution to GDP. According to the Business Development Department (Ministry of Planning and Investment), at the end of 2009, about 420.000 enterprises had been registered, and 97% of which are the small and medium enterprises (SME).

I. RATIONALE
Currently, small and medium enterprises are called to play an important role in the economic development of Vietnam, especially in employment generation and contribution to GDP. According to the Business Development Department (Ministry of Planning and Investment), at the end of 2009, about 420.000 enterprises had been registered, and 97% of which are the small and medium enterprises (SME). The period from 2000 to 2009 experienced an impressive growth of new registered businesses and most of them are SMEs. Considerably, the scale of capital of registered business also increased. During period of 2000-2008, average scale of registered capital of an enterprise had grew up nine folds.
Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) play important role in developing countries is because of their unique characteristics, that it is including the followings (Tambunan, 2006): (1) their number is huge, and they are scattered widely throughout the rural areas and therefore they may have a special “local” significance for the rural economy; (2) they are labor intensive; (3) SMEs in developing countries are mainly agriculturally based activities; (4) these enterprises, especially SEs, finance their operations overwhelmingly by personal savings of the owners, supplemented by gifts or loans from relatives or from local informal moneylenders, traders, input suppliers, and payments in advance from consumers; (5) SMEs provide an avenue for the development of entrepreneurship. With respect to this latter, that is why the development or growth of SMEs is often seen as an indicatior of entrepreneurship development”

However, in the fact that factors are lack of capital resources, a weak technologies, short training of good staff strategy are preventing Small medium enterpirses developing. In particular, small and medium enterprise are easy to be hunted and have many difficulty in the context of regional and global economic integration. The main causes are inculeding: small business size,limited access to capital markets and human capital, low invesment, out of date technologies, low labor productivity and low competitive intensity. Low competitive intensity are often the result of product market barriers such as low quality product, high price or slow innovation.
Improving effectiveness and competitiveness of each enterprise is the primary approach in the context of increasing integration into the global economy of Vietnam. The important questions for Vietnamese policy makers are how to improve competitiveness of the Vietnamese SMEs. Among solutions, technological innovation in production and management is considered as one of the best solution, which needs the consideration of not only from policy markers, but also from researchers and enterprise community.
With the support from the Spain International Development Agency, the Institute of Policy and Strategy for Agriculture and Rural Development (IPSARD) is implementing a project: “Study on policy recommendations to support for development of small and medium enterprises in agricultural sector and rural areas – phase II + III”, of which the study namely: “Study on roles of technological innovation to the development of small and medium enterprises in Vietnam” is one of activities of the project. This study will identify factors which determine the growth of Vietnamese SMEs, especially the role of technological innovation factor in the period 2000-2009. The result of the study will contribute evidences for policy markers, researchers, enterprises in making decision to develop factors of technological innovation with the aim of developing and improving competitiveness of SME of Vietnam in the future. 

Southern Office (SCAP), who had been assigned to implement this study, is a center under the Institute of Policy and Strategy for Agriculture and Rural Development (IPSARD), which has mandate of studying and consulting in agricultural and rural development policy in the Southern of Vietnam.
To carry out the above mission, the Southern Office (SCAP) seeks to recruit consultative experts in short-term to perform activity of data analysis. The work requirements are given below.

II. OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
- To describe and analyze the development of technology application of the Vietnamese small and medium enterprises by sectors and scales.
- To estimate and analyze determinants of the growth of the Vietnamese small and medium enterprises during 2007 and 2009.
- To estimate and analyze roles of technological innovation to the growth of the Vietnamese small and medium enterprises.
- Policy recommendation for the development of the Vietnamese small and medium enterprises based on technological innovation factors.

III. RESPONSIBILITY FOR EACH EXPERT
1.  Expert 1 (01 person): Data and information collection and desk review to understand the situation of the Vietnamese small and medium enterprises in term of development performance and technological innovation application.
The contents which are needed to collect and review are:
- Policy documents related to Vietnamese enterprises in general and SMEs in particular.
- Studies about enterprises development, evaluating the role of technologies and technological innovation to the growth of enterprises in Vietnam and the world.
- Exploring other data sources (e.g. data from enterprises, domestic and international organizations: Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Vietnam, Institute of Central Economic Management, World Bank, etc.)
Expected output
- A report reviews the current situation of the Vietnamese SMEs in terms of development performance and technology application.
2. Expert 2 (01 person):
• Data analysis
- Extract data of the GSO’s enterprises survey:
+ The database of the enterprise survey in 2009 conducted by the General Statistics Office (GSO).
+ The database of agriculture and rural enterprise survey in 2009 conducted by the project “Study on policy recommendations to support for development of small and medium enterprises in agricultural sector” – phase 2 & 3.
- Describe and analyse report data based on requirement of SCAP/IPSARD.
• Overview of situation of business and technological innovation application of SME in Vietnam
- Synthesize data and information based on above data analyzed and results of the desk review activity
- Situation of business of small medium enterprise in Vietnam
+ revenue and profit changing of small medium enterprise in Vietnam by size of capital, size of labour, quintilre, sector, type of enterprise, period 2005 to 2008.
+ Equity and labour changing of small medium enterprise in Vietnam by size of capital, size of labour, quintilre, sector, type of enterprise, period 2005 to 2008.
- Situation of technological innovation of SME in Vietnam from 2005 – 2008
+ Practical technologies application indicator (such as total of computers used, application of LAN network, internet, website and electronic transaction) by SME’s size of capital, size of labour, sector, type of enterprise etc.
+ Research and technological innovation indicators (such as: number of person takes part in research and technological activity; number of programs, subjects were expansed, cost of technological expansion and cost of technological research) by SME’s size of capital, size of labour, sector, type of enterprise etc.
Expected output
- Data after extracted from the database, save in Microsoft Excel format
- A report which describes information and tables in Microsoft Word format
- A report of overview of current situation of Vietnamese SMEs (business situation and technological innovation application) by scale and sectors.
3. Expert 3 (01 persons): Economic and policy analyst
 Estimate econometrics model and analysis report
Applying regression analysis to analyzes the roles of technologies innovation in the growth of Vietnamese SMEs.  The results of the econometrics model will provide information to the policy makers and researchers to make policy decisions to the development of Vietnamese SMEs. Using dummy variables and characteristics of enterprises will provide more results to understand the role of technologies to the development of Vietnamese SMEs, by scale and sector.
 Propose policy recommendation for the development of Vietnamese SMEs from technological innovation
Basing on econometric results, expert will propose policy recommendations to promote the contribution of technological innovation for the development of SMEs in Vietnam.
Expected output
- Econometric analysis report
- Policy recommendation

IV. QUALIFICATIONS AND EXPERIENCE
Required qualification for the consultancy includes:
- Graduated in subjects of economics, agriculture economics, environment economics, statistics or other areas that related to data analysis
- At least 3 to 5 years working experience for the work of data collection and desk review (Expert 1)
- At least 4 to 6 years working experience for the work of data analysis and information synthesize (Expert 2)
- At least 5 to 10 years working experience for the work of data analysis using econometric models and recommending policies (Expert 3)
- Experience in using data analysis software (e.g. Excel, STATA, SPSS, etc.) and office software (Microsoft Word and Power Point, etc.)

V. EXPENSES
Working time for each expert is expected as follows:
- Expert 1: 15 days; starting tentatively from January 2011.
- Expert 2: 55 days; starting tentatively from January 2011.
- Expert 3: 60 days; starting tentatively from January 2011.
The experts’ fees are generally defined by experience and capability of the expert according to current UN-EU guideline for financing of local costs in cooperation development with Vietnam.