The HCM City Credit Guarantee Fund provided guarantees to eight projects of small- and medium-sized enterprises in 2016. — Photo www.businessinsider.in

The total investment of these eight projects is VND813 billion.

More than 200 SMEs received support from the HCM City Credit Guarantee Fund this year, which includes financial consultancy.

Credit guarantee for SMEs to procure bank loans was not as efficient as expected because of the requirement to mortgage assets, which SMEs found difficult to meet.

However, the situation is expected to improve as policies are to be amended and loans sanctioned based on the evaluation of a project’s efficiency rather than the mortgage of assets.

There are more than 120,000 SMEs in HCM City, which account for 96 per cent of the total number of firms in the city.

Since it was formed in 2007, the HCM City Credit Guarantee Fund has provided loan guarantees to 121 SMEs, helping them procure loans worth VND871 billion.

Statistics with the Finance Ministry show that there are 27 credit guarantee funds nation-wide with total charter capital of nearly VND1.5 trillion. The outstanding loans that they have guaranteed total VND361 billion.

At a conference on December 13, Deputy Prime Minister Vuong Dinh Hue has urged that a mechanism be put in place to improve the efficiency of credit guarantee funds so they can better support SMEs, in line with Government Resolution 35 about developing businesses. — VNS