Developing small-scaled financial systems in Vietnam as capital channels for low income earners and small-sized enterprises was the major goal of a seminar in Hanoi on December 18.

Tran Minh Tuan, Deputy Governor of the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV), said the above-mentioned target population have difficulty reaching banking services and its system. Therefore, access to micro-financial sources should help protect them from relapsing into poverty.

In Vietnam , small-scaled financing services normally exist in three forms, with official institutions dominated by the Vietnam Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development and the Vietnam Social Policy Bank.

Semi-official creditors including funds and development support centres, which are put under the SBV supervision, make up another form of lending for low-income earners and small-sized enterprises.

Low income earners may also raise capital through Rotating Saving and Credit Associations (ROSCA) or go to individual lenders for money.

For 2001-2008, small-scaled financial institutions have managed to sharply increase the number of clients in both credits and saving deposits.

Between 70 and 80 percent of some 4.6 million poor families nationwide have had access to at least one financial service, mostly in terms of credit.

Experts at the seminar called on small-scaled financial institutions to streamline procedures, apply fast and flexible lending mechanisms and increase non-mortgage lending./.