BIDV signs green credit agreement with French Development Agency

Hanoi (VNA) - The Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam (BIDV) announced on May 27 that it has signed an agreement on the SUNREF green credit line with the French Development Agency (AFD) to finance businesses investing in the fields of environmental protection, climate change response, and green growth.

The AFD will provide a long-term loan of 100 million USD to BIDV and technical assistance worth 300,000 EUR (366,000 USD) to the bank and its customers.

BIDV General Director Le Ngoc Lam said the agreement will help create new opportunities in relations between BIDV and AFD in many fields, especially green credit.

He reaffirmed that the application of comprehensive international standards on green credit has helped BIDV better its operations and strictly control credit risks.

AFD Director in Vietnam Fabrice Richy said the loan is the first SUNREF credit quota it has implemented in Vietnam in the form of a concessional loan without government guarantee.

SUNREF is a green finance label deployed by AFD with nearly 70 partner banks in 30 countries and territories.

AFD hopes that, through BIDV, it can continue to grant preferential loans and non-refundable aid to Vietnamese businesses, thus contributing to promoting green growth and climate change adaptation in the country, Richy said.

The agency has previously entrusted BIDV to implement a number of projects, such as the northern power transmission project worth 40 million EUR and a project on housing development for people in floodplains in the Mekong Delta region worth 25 million EUR.

AFD is a non-profit international financial institution operating for the French Government by providing loans and non-refundable aid to organisations and State-owned enterprises, with a main target of reducing emissions and coping with climate change.

It has so far financed more than 90 projects in Vietnam with total funding of nearly 2.3 billion EUR, in the fields of infrastructure, transport, energy, and agriculture, in line with France’s cooperation priorities in Vietnam./.