|
Subsidized loan program gives boost to economy: Central bank
The government’s loan subsidy program has given a boost to businesses and the national economy, central bank governor Nguyen Van Giau said Monday while speaking to business executives at a meeting in Ho Chi Minh City.
A recovery has emerged in exports in the first four months this year and complaints by the business community about difficulties have declined, Giau said.
Last year, a report by the Vietnam Association of Small and Medium Industrial Enterprises (SME) had predicted 20 percent of SMEs faced bankruptcy, 60 percent were facing difficulty, and only 20 percent would be able to survive the recession.
The governor said a survey by the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry found that 91 percent of Vietnamese and foreign businesses have, however, maintained their operations, with half even aiming for expansion this year.
It is an “amazing” sign, he said.
Vietnam’s recent export performance demonstrates “resilience” in the face of global economic distress, Indochina Capital Vietnam Holdings Ltd. said.
Exports through April declined 0.1 percent. By comparison, Chinese exports fell 20.5 percent, according to China’s Customs General Administration.
Vietnamese banks and financial institutions lent a combined VND290 trillion (US$1.6 billion) to businesses in the three and a half months through the middle of May since the government started the loan subsidy program.
According to the State Bank of Vietnam, most of the loans are short-term.
The head of the central bank’s Monetary Policy Department, Nguyen Ngoc Bao, said foreign banks that joined the government’s program include ANZ, which lent VND1.4 trillion, and HSBC, which lent VND3 trillion.
HCMC-based businesses that managed to borrow under the subsidy program have cut their borrowing costs by 36.6 percent, Bao said.
The Monetary Policy Department also said the program has helped businesses in Hue save 30 percent.
Pham Gia Tuc, the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s Secretary General, said the government’s loan subsidy program has helped businesses overcome the worst effects of the recession.
The government decided in January to use VND17 trillion from an economic stimulus package to provide a 4-percent interest subsidy on loans to companies that export, import or produce essential goods.
It later extended the program until the end of 2011, and expanded the list of beneficiaries.
Minh Quang
thanhnien
|
