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Wood, coffee exporters receive banking assistance
The Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam (BIDV) has signed a series of credit contracts worth 3 trillion VND (176.4 million USD) with wood and coffee exporters from Binh Dinh, Gia Lai, Dak Lak and Lam Dong.
The contracts were inked within the framework a conference to assist wood and coffee exports, which was held in the central province of Binh Dinh on Dec. 12.
BIDV’s move is aimed at helping to ease the impact of the global financial crisis, which has resulted in a drop in Vietnam ’s exports, with farm produce like wood and coffee being particularly affected.
BIDV’s Chairman Tran Bac Ha affirmed that the contracts would take effect as from 2009 and that the bank is prepared to assist the enterprises in seeking new export opportunities and markets.
BIDV has supported businesses in this field since 2006. The bank has so far lent over 9 trillion VND to businesses in the wood sector, with this year’s lending increasing by 55 percent compared to 2007.
The bank plans to lend a further 8 trillion VND, meeting about 30 percent of the wood sector’s demands for capital.
Currently, the bank has extended loans to 70 wood exporters, mainly in central Binh Dinh and Quang Ngai provinces, southern Binh Duong and Dong Nai provinces and the central highlands province of Gia Lai .
BIDV has also given 8.35 trillion VND to coffee exporters, including 1.3 trillion VND for 2008, 38 percent more than the previous year. It plans to issue an additional 6.3 trillion VND in loans to the coffee sector, meeting 30 percent of the sector’s demand.
In addition to granting loans, BIDV provides other business services, such as international payment services, cross-exchange lending, and foreign currency transactions.
To maintain the growth rates in exports of these two products, the BIDV official pledged to speed up access to credit, increase its levels of assistance and service and to establish a fund to support exports, in order to help enterprises to overcome financial difficulties.
This year’s coffee harvest was the third consecutive time that the coffee sector had set a record in the value of exports, reaching 1.78 billion USD during the first 11 months of this year. This figure is expected to hit 2 billion USD by the end of this year.
The export value of wood for the same period was 2.56 billion USD, a year-on-year increase of 20 percent and is expected to reach 2.8 billion USD by the end of this year.
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