Business

Soft loans target agriculture growth

The State Bank of Vietnam approved a list of participants for a 2.3 trillion VND (109 million USD) pilot programme offering preferential loans for agricultural development.
The State Bank of Vietnam approved a list of participants for a 2.3trillion VND (109 million USD) pilot programme offering preferentialloans for agricultural development.

Commercial banks andcustomers in Lam Dong, Nam Dinh, Can Tho, Dong Thap and Nghe An will bethe first to benefit, according to State Bank Governor Nguyen Van Binh.

Thesouthern province of Dong Thap will get the most money, more than 1.04trillion VND (48.8 million USD). The central province of Nghe Anprovince will get 524 billion VND (24.5 million USD), Can Tho city inthe Mekong Delta, 284 billion VND (13.3 million USD), Lam Dong provincein the Central Highlands, 80 billion VND (3.7 million USD) and thenorthern province of Nam Dinh, 75 billion VND (3.5 million USD).

Businessesin these places will have to pay interest rates of just seven percentper year for short-term loans, 10 percent for medium-term loans and 10.5percent for long-term loans.

Short-term loans will be grantedfor farmers to buy fertilisers, seedlings and poultry and livestockbreeds as well as agricultural equipment. The medium and long-term loanswill support investments in infrastructure and equipment to develophi-tech models.

The loans aim to forge finance connectivitybetween businesses and farmers for new farming models such aslarge-scale rice farms and application of advanced technology.

Manyof these models had shown their effectiveness in several areas, Binhsaid, citing as examples the large-scale rice field model in An Giangprovince, the hi-tech vegetable and flower production model in Lam Dongprovince and the dairy farming and milk production model in central NgheAn.

In May, four businesses in An Giang received 350 billion VND(16.4 million USD) through the programme, which is jointly organised bythe State Bank, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development andthe Ministry of Science and Technology.

After the two-year trialperiod, the three institutions will work together on policies to applythe programme on a larger scale.-VNA
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