The State Bank of Vietnam has allowed 13 commercial banks to offer lending rates of 7 percent, a package designed for traders to purchase winter-spring rice for stockpiling.

They include Agribank, Vietinbank, Techcombank, Ocean Bank and HD Bank, among others.

The disbursement of six-month loans will run from March 20 until April 30.

The central bank also asked its offices and commercial banks across the Mekong Delta to monitor the rice purchase, while making it easier for traders to access this preferential loan package.-VNA