Within the framework of the forum and on the sidelines of the 8th National Farmers' Forum, 2023 taking place today, October 12, in Hanoi, the difficulty of cooperatives in accessing loans is a story that has received much attention.
Farmer Phan Van Thu (Cay Trom Agricultural Trade Service Cooperative, Long An) speaking at the forum
Farmer Phan Van Thu (Cay Trom Agricultural Trade Service Cooperative, Long An) shared that, with increasingly strict market requirements, concentrated production and closed production processes to ensure transparency and traceability of origin are inevitable. This requires a huge amount of capital for the cooperative to invest.
However, cooperatives are having difficulty accessing loans from banks because they do not have common assets or undivided assets of the cooperative.
In addition, currently, cooperatives are mainly supported with loans from the Cooperative Development Fund, but the maximum loan amount is only 1 billion VND/cooperative. This figure currently does not meet production needs.
"We really hope that the relevant departments and commercial banks will create favorable conditions for cooperatives to be able to get credit with existing projects or assets, instead of having to use personal assets. At the same time, should we consider expanding the cooperative's loan limit at the Cooperative Development Fund to a higher level?", Mr. Thu asked.
In the response, Ms. Ha Thu Giang, Director of the Department of Credit for Economic Sectors (State Bank), acknowledged that bank capital is very important for the development of cooperatives. The State Bank has paid attention to amending legal documents on credit, guiding credit institutions in lending to customers, and amending practical problems.
Loans can be secured or unsecured, the secured assets can be real estate, inventory; unsecured loans are evaluated based on the customer's ability to repay, whether the project is good or not... In general, bank lending regulations are very flexible.
However, with current regulations, unsecured loans are an important condition but not a prerequisite, and it also depends on many factors, the ability to repay debt, and the business of cooperatives...
"The State Bank has paid attention to the credit access of cooperatives, and has issued many instructions requiring credit institutions to collect information to assess customer creditworthiness, improve appraisal efficiency, increase the ability to lend without collateral, and increase lending to cooperative customers. From now until the end of the year, the State Bank will synchronously deploy solutions to increase the credit absorption capacity of the economy, including cooperatives," said Ms. Giang.
Cooperatives must also remove limitations.
According to Mr. Le Hong Phuc, Deputy General Director of Agribank, Decree 55 of the Government on credit policy for agricultural and rural development as well as the State Bank are having "very open" policies assigning commercial banks to decide the level of unsecured assets for loans of organizations and cooperatives.
There are mechanisms but currently the collective economy and cooperatives have not developed. Commercial banks have issued many loan packages, mainly loan packages to stimulate businesses with very low interest rates, but there are no loan packages for cooperatives.
Overview of the forum
"We have had many options but also found it difficult. On the part of the cooperatives, first of all, their own capital is not enough. If they borrow for a medium-term project, it must be up to 25% of their own capital (if they borrow 100 billion VND, they must have 25 billion VND in counterpart funds).
In addition, the transparent, systematic and appraisal financial reporting system is not yet complete; assets are also a problem. Many cooperatives have greenhouses and factories, but those assets are synchronized with land documents, including mortgaged leased land, which is not legally guaranteed," said Mr. Phuc.
The Deputy General Director of Agribank also mentioned the aspect of responsibility of members in enterprises and cooperatives is not high and not strict. For Agribank, the number of cooperatives with overdue debt from previous years is still high, affecting lending.
"In the coming time, I hope that the Government, all levels and sectors will have solutions to remove obstacles and support cooperatives to develop further. In addition, the cooperatives themselves must remove limitations, from which we will have the opportunity to bring credit to cooperatives," Mr. Phuc emphasized.
On October 12, within the framework of the 8th National Farmers' Forum in 2023, with the consent of the Standing Committee of the Vietnam Farmers' Union, Nong Thon Ngay Nay Newspaper/Dan Viet Electronic organized the launch of the Network of Outstanding Vietnamese Farmers.
The establishment of the Network of Excellent Vietnamese Farmers aims to gather and connect excellent Vietnamese farmers of all periods to exchange, learn, seek markets, cooperate in investment; share experiences, exchange information in agricultural production; organize training activities, tours, social activities...
The network of outstanding Vietnamese farmers was formed on a voluntary and autonomous basis with diverse and rich forms of activities.
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