Staff of HD Bank serve their clients in Ha Noi. The State bank of Viet Nam targets supporting businesses among the focal tasks of the banking system till 2020. – Photo bnews.vn

HA NOI (Biz Hub)– Supporting businesses is among the focal tasks of the banking system till 2020, Deputy Governor of the State Bank of Viet Nam (SBV) Dao Minh Tu has said.

He and bankers across Viet Nam conducted a teleconference late last week on enforcing the Government's Resolution 19-2016/NQ-CP on tasks and solutions to improve the business climate, and Resolution 35/NQ-CP on supporting and developing businesses till 2020.

In late June, the central bank issued an action plan on implementing the resolutions across the banking system, focusing on improving credit access for enterprises and assisting their development.

Nguyen Hoang Minh, deputy director of the SBV's HCM City branch, said banks in the southern city co-ordinated with local district people's committees to survey companies that wanted to get bank loans to provide help.

No firm has complained about facing obstacles while accessing bank loans so far, he said, adding that the SBV branch and commercial banks have considered loans for companies that did not meet some conditions of eligibility, such as having collateral, but had feasible business plans.

Minh said though current lending interest rates were rather reasonable, businesses still wanted stable mid- and long-term rates, which have been ensured by some banks.

Khuc Van Hoa, deputy general director of Tien Phong Bank (TPBank), said as most small- and medium-sized enterprises had a collateral problem, his bank was ready to give loans, regardless of their collateral status, provided they had effective business plans.

However, one hindrance was that businesses' internal strength remained modest, making banks reluctant to provide loans, he said, while asking for co-ordination between banks and ministries to promote companies' capacity.

Meanwhile, SBV Deputy Governor Tu told banks to regularly overhaul their relevant policies to improve the business climate and assist enterprises, especially by simplifying administrative procedures.

Banks also needed to offer reasonable loan interest rates, promote their own loan verification capacity, and diversify credit products to facilitate credit access for firms, he said. – VNS