Standard Chartered Bank Vietnam on Friday signed a US$70 million trade-finance facility agreement to provide An Giang Plant Protection-Joint Stock Company with short- to medium-term working capital.— Photo vietstock.vn

HCM CITY (Biz Hub)— Standard Chartered Bank Vietnam on Friday signed a US$70 million trade-finance facility agreement to provide An Giang Plant Protection-Joint Stock Company with short- to medium-term working capital.

This will allow the company to develop its large-scale paddy field model in the Mekong Delta.

The field model, which is an integrated rice production chain, has been deployed for more than three years.

Under the model, the company purchases rice paddy from farmers who use its products, and, then appoints agricultural engineers to provide technical assistance to those farmers.

This helps raise the overall quality of the product, offering better returns for improved financial security as well as eliminating value leakage through intermediaries.

Huynh Van Thon, the plant protection company's chairman, said: "Standard Chartered's tailor-made products for agriculture allow us to further the success of the big paddy field model."

CEO Nirukt Sapru of SCB Vietnam, Cambodia & Laos, said: "We are proud to be the first foreign bank to support the development of the big paddy model in Viet Nam through this pioneer cooperation. We are encouraged by the way An Giang company is supporting the development of the rice industry from which millions of Vietnamese rice growers will benefit." — VNS