The Military Bank (MB) has announced that it was selected by the State Bank of Vietnam as a banking and finance service provider for the disbursement and implementation of the transmission grid No 1 project.

The two-year project is part of a 1.75 billion USD grid investment programme developed by the National Power Transmission Corp. with finance from the Asian Development Bank amounting to 730 million USD.

According to the bank, the programme will help upgrade the national grid by supplying more 220KV and 500KV electricity lines and transmission stations nationwide. It began last year and will be completed in 2020.

At a shareholder meeting late last month, the bank said it will increase its charter capital from 10.6 trillion VND (504.7 million USD) to 15 trillion VND (714.3 million USD) this year by issuing more shares.

This year, it planned to achieve a deposit growth rate of 10 percent (equalling) 167.85 trillion VND or about 8 billion USD) and a lending growth rate of 12 percent (equalling 83.5 trillion VND or about 4 billion USD), and control bad debts at below 2.5 percent.

It was expected to earn 3.5 trillion VND (166.7 million USD) in pre-tax profits, an increase of 14 percent over last year, and pay a dividend of 12 percent.-VNA