Agencies need to work to ensure the success of the interest rate aid programme and optimise its effectiveness, Deputy Prime Minister Le Minh Khai said on Wednesday.

During an online conference to implement the Government's Decree 31/2022/ND-CP on interest rate support from the State budget for loans of enterprises, co-operatives and business households, Khai said the large-scale programme is implemented nationwide and expected to have a positive impact on the whole economy. Therefore, he required the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) to coordinate closely with other ministries and agencies to regularly monitor and evaluate the results of the programme’s implementation.

Commercial banks must step up the interest rate support in accordance with the regulations, Khai said, adding relevant ministries and agencies, such as the ministries of Planning and Investment, Finance and Construction, must directly participate in the programme’s implementation.

The SBV must promptly propose feasible solutions to remove obstacles and create favourable conditions for the implementation so as to maximise the effectiveness of the programme, Khai said.

According to SBV’s deputy governor Dao Minh Tu, the programme is a large-scale policy with the participation of many commercial banks. The programme uses the State budget to help reduce the loan costs for enterprises, cooperatives and business households in order to help them overcome difficulties to stabilise and develop production and business. Therefore, the policy implementation must ensure fairness, publicity and transparency to identify the right beneficiaries.

The beneficiaries of the policy are enterprises, cooperatives and business households in aviation, transportation, warehousing, tourism, accommodation and catering services, education, agriculture, forestry, fishery, manufacturing and processing industry, software and computer programming, information services, and developers of social and worker housing.

Under the programme, the State budget shall fully and promptly allocate funds for interest rate support of 2 per cent per year for commercial banks to provide interest rate support to customers.

Commercial banks will stop supporting interest rates after December 31 next year or when the funding source runs out, whichever comes first.

The interest rate support period is from the date of loan disbursement to the time when the customer pays off the loan principal and/or interest as agreed between the commercial banks and the customers, in line with the funding source for interest support rates announced, but not exceeding December 31 next year.

Standing vice chairman of Thanh Hoa provincial People's Committee Nguyen Van Thi said the need to have access to bank loans, especially those with preferential interest rates, is very large. Processing-manufacturing, agriculture and tourism industries, which are beneficiaries of the programme, are considered key drivers for Thanh Hoa Province's economic development in the 2021-25 period. — VNS