On the morning of June 30, the Ho Chi Minh City Investment and Trade Promotion Center (ITPC) coordinated with the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) Ho Chi Minh City branch to organize the Conference "Business - City Government Dialogue".
At the event, representatives of many businesses said that accessing loans with low interest rates and preferential interest rates is still difficult.
Mr. Dinh Cong Khuong, Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City Steel Business Club, informed that the State Bank has reduced interest rates four times but the benefits for businesses have been minimal. For example, his business has had its interest rates reduced twice, each time by only about 0.2-0.3%/year. Therefore, there needs to be a solution to make it easier for businesses to "breathe".
According to him, the steel industry is an industry with huge loans, from tens of billions to thousands of billions, so if the bank reduces interest rates by 0.5-1% 1-2 days earlier, it will be very good. Currently, the sales of steel industry enterprises have decreased by 50-70%, if the bank does not accompany immediately, the enterprises will go bankrupt. From there, the bad debts of enterprises will affect the banks.
Ms. Nguyen Thi Thu Thuy, representative of Vietluxtour Company, said that travel agencies specialize in providing services to customers, but when they want to borrow capital to invest in more tourist vehicles and expand their business, banks require collateral. Therefore, Ms. Thuy hopes that there will be a mechanism for reputable, profitable travel agencies to access unsecured loans.
Notably, the director of a logistics company in Ho Chi Minh City shared that when he went to the bank to ask about the Government's 2% interest rate support package, he received the answer from the credit officer that the credit package had been used up. Meanwhile, an employee at another bank said there was no information about this support package!?
In response to this strange information from the business, Mr. Nguyen Duc Lenh, Deputy Director of the State Bank of Vietnam, Ho Chi Minh City branch, affirmed that the credit officer's answer was incorrect and he did not fulfill his responsibility.
Because, the 2% interest rate support package is applied according to Decree 31 of the Government and Circular 03 of the State Bank issued from May 20, 2022. The policy communication organization has been done well from the beginning.
Specifically, the State Bank has trained the entire system and held online meetings with all 63 provinces/cities with credit institutions. Commercial banks have also developed business processes and internal guidelines, disseminated them to transaction offices, informed staff, and advised customers about the support package.
“I am very sorry that a credit officer responded to a business like that. I request that the business provide information about which bank the employee belongs to and where the branch is so that we can take action. We cannot allow a major policy of the Government and the banking sector to be implemented over the past time and have a credit officer respond to a business like that,” Mr. Lenh said.
According to Mr. Lenh, the 2% interest rate support package from the budget (about 40,000 billion VND) will be applied in 2022 and 2023. Suppose, when borrowing capital from a commercial bank with an agreed interest rate of 8%, the enterprise only has to pay 6% interest. Thus, this package directly supports 2% interest for enterprises.
Since this is a credit package supporting the use of budget capital, it is necessary to ensure the appraisal process, correct subjects, correct objectives and transparency. However, he admitted that the implementation of the support package is slow.
According to him, the reason is due to the cautious mentality of businesses. They are afraid of inspection and audit work. In addition, according to regulations, credit institutions must assess the recovery ability of businesses that are lending objects. This is a qualitative factor, so it also affects the implementation of the support package.
However, a representative of the State Bank of Vietnam in Ho Chi Minh City said that if businesses have difficulty accessing the 2% support package or other policy mechanisms, they can directly report to the State Bank of Vietnam in Ho Chi Minh City via hotline, email or text message to Mr. Lenh's phone number. The State Bank of Vietnam in the city will introduce businesses to commercial banks to find solutions.
Regarding lending interest rates, he said that many credit institutions in Ho Chi Minh City have proactively reduced lending interest rates by 0.5-1%, with pioneering banks such as VCB, BIDV, Agribank...
Along with that, the connection between banks and enterprises in Ho Chi Minh City has been implemented, banks have offered preferential credit packages for disbursement. Specifically, the program connecting banks and enterprises in the city this year attracted the participation of 20 banking brands with a registered capital of more than 453,000 billion VND. In the first 5 months of the year, the disbursed amount was about 283,000 billion, equivalent to 60% of the registered capital.
However, Mr. Lenh noted that every policy has a certain delay, so it takes time. Besides, the bank is also a business, and the capital for lending to businesses is a source of money mobilized from the economy and the population. Therefore, the bank must also ensure efficiency in operations and have cash flow to pay interest on deposits to residents.
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