The Vietnamese Government has announced the second stimulus package in which organisations and individuals are provided partial interest rate subsidy for medium- and long-term loans. On this occasion, the Vietnam Business Forum has an interview with Mr Pham Quoc Thanh, Deputy General Director of An Binh Commercial Joint Stock Bank (ABBank), on this support policy.
What do you think about the second demand stimulus package? How has ABBANK planned to implement this policy?
At present, the demand for medium and long-term loans is quite high. Since the Vietnamese Government launched the first stimulus package, businesses expect to have interest rate subsidies for medium and long-term loans. This is their true desire. Previously, ABBANK received borrowing applications for over VND1,000 billion for big projects. Thus, the second stimulus package is widely applauded by businesses and bankers.
Immediately after receiving the Circular 05/2009 of the Government on detailed provisions for exercising interest rate support for organisations and individuals to borrow medium- and long-term loans for business and production development investment, ABBANK held a meeting to discuss the implementation in the quickest manner. This week or next week, we will expand the “Ky Suu demand stimulus” programme to suit the new situation. ABBANK debuted this programme in February when the Government applied a policy to grant four percentage points of interest rate for VND loans. In this programme, customers are also given many promotional gifts such as Visa Debit Card and travel tickets.
Do you have any suggestions for accelerating demand stimulus lending programme?
Firstly, we expect to have more instructions and training from the State Bank to understand more about the policy and quickly notify our customers.
Secondly, banks have encountered many difficulties in executing the first stimulus package in spite of instructions from the State Bank of Vietnam. Thus, we hope the State Bank to open a hotline for commercial banks to seek answers for their queries. This will help speed up disbursements for customers.
Thirdly, after the stimulus packages for production and business expansion, the government should launch a package to boost consumption. At present, consumer stimulus measures failed to bring in expected outcomes although personal income tax has been cut. Psychologically, consumers tend to tighten their spending belt.
The lending disbursement at ABBANK is quite quick. Could you give more details? Does ABBANK have any solutions to help enterprises get quick access to capital? Compared with January 2009, the disbursement speed in February and March soared between 60 - 70 per cent.
To date, ABBANK lent VND1,300 billion to 300 customers in accordance with the first stimulus package. I think this growth is higher than the average pace because a large majority of preferential capital is coming from State-owned commercial banks while the capital from joint stock banks like us remain modest.
To facilitate enterprises to access bank loans, ABBANK has provided sufficient information about the 4 per cent interest rate-subsidized loans guaranteed by the Vietnam Development Bank for concerned entities. They can dial our Call Centre (08.38 365 365 – 1900 571 581) for more information. Additionally, ABBANK also quickly reviews and ratifies eligible applications.
At present, ABBANK has signed a cooperation deal with the Vietnam Development Bank (VDB) and this is expected to speed up the lending disbursement. Accordingly, enterprises guaranteed by VDB will not necessarily have their applications reviewed. This is a method to speed up and facilitate lending for enterprises.
Reported by Quynh Chi
Vietnamese
