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| Banks are implementing many preferential credit programs, especially for small and medium enterprises. |
"Lifebuoy" of enterprises
At the workshop "Bank capital contributes to promoting the private economy" organized by Banking Times, Deputy Governor of the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) Dao Minh Tu affirmed that supporting private enterprises to access bank capital conveniently is an important task that the banking industry always focuses on.
First of all, we must talk about solutions to manage interest rates, exchange rates, and the amount of capital supplied to the economy... All are practical solutions to support businesses, of which private businesses are the main ones. Banks have many policies to support businesses, especially small and medium-sized enterprises (accounting for 98% of the number of businesses) such as restructuring debt repayment terms, extending debt repayment terms, deferring loans, extending loan terms; reducing interest rates during and after the Covid-19 pandemic, natural disasters, storms and floods... to help businesses recover and maintain production activities.
From the perspective of commercial banks, Ms. Phung Thi Binh, Deputy General Director of the Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development of Vietnam (Agribank), shared that with the goal of economic development reaching 8% in 2025, Agribank was announced to increase credit growth by 13% with an absolute figure of 230 trillion VND. Meanwhile, with the current outstanding debt of 1.74 trillion VND, 90% is for the private economic sector. The above data shows that we are very interested in private economic customers, especially when Agribank is always associated with the mission of developing rural agriculture and farmers. To bring private economic households, specifically small and medium enterprises, closer to banks, Agribank has implemented linkages with farmers, women's associations, etc. Agribank is implementing 9 preferential credit programs for all subjects, including 8 programs for private economic households, including import-export enterprises, small and medium enterprises, consumer production and business, etc. In these programs, loan interest rates are 1-2% lower than usual. The bank also has preferential programs for import-export enterprises participating in the value chain.
With the efforts and participation of the State Bank and the active support of commercial banks, credit activities for private enterprises have achieved many positive results. By the end of 2024, outstanding credit for private enterprises at credit institutions (CIs) reached nearly 7 million billion VND, an increase of about 14.7% compared to 2023, accounting for about 44% of outstanding credit in the economy. Of which, 100 CIs have generated outstanding credit for SMEs with a total outstanding debt of 2.74 million billion VND, an increase of 10.7% compared to the end of 2023, accounting for 17.6% of outstanding debt in the economy; there are 208,992 SMEs with outstanding debt. It can be said that most domestic CIs, foreign bank branches, microfinance institutions... have direct lending relationships with the private enterprise sector, including SMEs.
“The number of 208,992 SMEs with outstanding loans shows that bank credit capital has promptly met the capital needs for production and business purposes of private enterprises, while contributing to promoting economic development and increasing revenue for the state budget,” Deputy Governor Dao Minh Tu affirmed.
With many impressive results, Chairman of the Vietnam Association of Small and Medium Enterprises Nguyen Van Than happily shared that in recent times, the banking sector has always accompanied small and medium enterprises. The outstanding debt ratio of enterprises can be said to be very high. High outstanding debt proves that SMEs are developing.
However, in reality, some businesses have reported that they have not been able to access bank capital. Mr. Nguyen Van Than, Chairman of the Vietnam Association of Small and Medium Enterprises, said that businesses also need to be sympathetic, because the pressure on banks to ensure the effectiveness of loan capital is also very large. Businesses in need of loans can go through the Association to receive support in developing feasible production and business plans, increasing the opportunity to access credit capital...
From the business side, according to Mr. Nguyen Kim Hung - Chairman of the Board of Directors of Kim Nam Group, banks are the "lifesaver" of capital for businesses. To develop, businesses need at least ten years, but if technology is applied, this process can be shortened by half, or even faster, but banks currently do not have a loan package to support innovation.
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| Speakers and experts discuss at the Workshop organized by Banking Times |
Design specialized financial products
Enterprises have proposed that the banking sector propose that the Government provide businesses with 0% interest loans to invest in technology, and that the interest rate subsidy can be completely offset by corporate income tax. Because the current medium and long-term loan interest rate is 8-10%/year, which is not attractive to businesses.
However, according to Deputy Governor Dao Minh Tu, the proposal of zero-interest loans is difficult to implement from a commercial perspective because banks still have to do business to generate revenue, so they need support from the state. Furthermore, according to the Deputy Governor, the lending mechanism to promote innovation according to Resolution No. 57-NQ/TW dated December 22, 2024 of the Politburo on breakthroughs in science and technology development, innovation and digital transformation is an issue of concern, but capital cannot depend only on banks, but a strategy is needed to mobilize all domestic and foreign capital sources.
ASCO Auditing Firm Chairman Nguyen Thanh Khiet also said that one of the biggest challenges that SMEs face is the lack of collateral and unclear financial records... To solve this problem, it is necessary to deploy synchronous solutions from banks, businesses and state management agencies.
In order for SMEs to access bank capital more easily, Mr. Nguyen Van Than said, there needs to be a close connection between enterprises and financial institutions. In addition, developing alternative financial models such as supply chain credit, financial leasing (leasing), peer-to-peer lending (P2P lending) is also an effective solution to help enterprises mobilize capital without depending entirely on banks. "The association can play an intermediary role, helping to connect enterprises with banks, creating conditions for them to be assessed for credit more favorably," Mr. Nguyen Van Than suggested.
The Chairman of ASCO Auditing Firm suggested that enterprises need to improve their management capacity, financial capacity and information transparency; Build and improve corporate governance systems, apply technology and AI in accounting and financial management, and other operational areas. SMEs need to build transparent financial reports with independent audits to create trust with banks; Proactively build business plans in sync with other operational plans and effective capital usage plans to convince banks.
Along with that, banks should design specialized financial products such as unsecured loans based on business cash flow; loans based on output contracts or loans based on assets formed from loan capital. In addition, banks need to expand credit assessment models based on actual transaction data of enterprises instead of focusing only on collateral.
Authorities need to support policies and mechanisms, create a favorable environment for businesses to develop production and business; reduce administrative procedures, provide more support in terms of market information as well as access to science and technology applications for private businesses to develop.
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