Workers are classifying shrimp for export at a seafood processing factory in Bac Lieu province. (Photo: VNA)- Commercial banks have stepped up lending to export firms, especially those in industrial parks and export processing zones, as exports of many goods have grown strongly this year.Nguyen Duc Lenh, deputy director of the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV)’s HCM City branch, said total outstanding loans in HCM City by the end of April 2022 reached more than 3 quadrillion VND (130 billion USD), of which about 196 trillion VND was poured into the Government’s priority areas, including exports.According to Lenh, the loans have helped many firms in industrial parks and export processing zones maintain production and business. Vietcombank’s Bình Dương Province branch has lowered interest rates for 87 percent of loans of corporate and individual customers.Vo Van Buu, director of Commercial Joint Stock Bank for Industry and Trade of Vietnam (VietinBank)’s Binh Duong Industrial Park branch, said the bank has launched many preferential loan programmes, which are exclusive to manufacturing and export areas. Thus, firms in the areas have many opportunities to access loans with low interest rates to serve their production and business needs.Private and foreign banks are also accelerating capital financing for manufacturing and export firms to capitalise on the strong recovery of export activities, especially in textile and garment, agriculture, fishery and processing industries.A representative of ShinhanBank in HCM City said the bank is currently lending well in industrial parks and export processing zones, with outstanding loans of some 30 million USD at a preferential interest rate of about 7.5 percent per year in the first one to three years. The loans to firms in industrial parks and export processing zones are continually growing well as the bank is expanding to other provinces and cities with many industrial zones.Meanwhile, domestic bank s such as HCM City Development Commercial Joint Stock Bank (HDBank), Vietnam Prosperity Commercial Joint Stock Bank (VPBank), Tien Phong Commercial Joint Stock Bank (TPBank) and Orient Commercial Joint Stock Bank (OCB) have also boosted financing for export firms.TPBank, for example, has launched a loan package worth 1 trillion VND for firms to develop livestock farms with an interest rate of 8 percent per year, while HDBank applied a preferential loan package of 1 trillion VND until mid-2022 to finance salary payments for corporate clients with interest rates from 6.8 percent per year.Along with the strong recovery of domestic firms after successfully controlling the pandemic, it is expected that banks’ credit will continue to be poured into production and business areas to recover the economy in many cities and provinces in the near future./.

Source: Viet Nam News May 29, 2022 21:32 UTC