The Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation (HSBC) has announced the result of the latest survey on the confidence of small and medium businesses in the Asia Pacific region, which showed that Bangladeshi, Vietnamese and Indian businesses plan to keep the same investment pace despite the global financial crisis.

The survey is conducted every six months to find out the confidence rate in doing business of small and medium businesses in the region.

Of the three hundred polled Vietnamese small and medium businesses, 45% said that they will keep the same investment rate, one quarter said they will increase their investment by a little, while 20% said they will increase the investment considerably.

Most of Vietnamese businesses will retain the current workforce (55%), while the other 45% said that they will employ more rather than cutting jobs.

The latest survey showed that businesses from Singapore, Taiwan and Hong Kong prove to be the most pessimistic businessmen. In Hong Kong, only 10% of businesses believe in the growth of trade with the remaining countries of Asia, while nearly a half (48%) think that the trade volume will stay the same, and 43% of businesses believe that the trade volume will decrease.

About 58% of Bangladeshi businesses expect the economic growth rate to become higher. The figure for Vietnamese businesses is 44%. In Vietnam, 24% of businesses think that the national economic growth will slow down, 32% believe that the economic growth rate will be the same as the previous year’s (the figure was 26% last year), and 30% expect the national economy to grow by over 4% (the figure was 21% six months ago).

HSBC believes that 2009 will be a difficult year for many businesses. In such big difficult conditions, the determination to gain success and the strong commitments towards employees and clients prove to be the main driving force for companies to overcome difficulties.

HSBC’s survey on the confidence of small and medium enterprises in the Asia Pacific region and Vietnam was carried out by TNS Company in the fourth quarter of 2008 which polled 3,000 companies from ten countries and territories.