The State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) has reminded commercial banks to abide by its directive to prioritise lending for the manufacturing and SMEs sectors.

The banks should also give lending priority to enterprises engaged in agriculture in particular and rural areas in general, the central bank has said.

Governor Nguyen Van Giau on lasrt week sent an official letter (No 2200/NHNN-CSTT) asking SBV branches nation-wide to inspect and request local commercial banks to intensify mobilisation of capital and reduce loans for the non-manufacturing sector in the spirit of the central bank's directive (No 01/CT-NHNN) issued on March 1.

The directive is related to the implementation of monetary and banking measures aimed at controlling inflation, stabilising the macroeconomy and maintaining social security.

The directive asks credit institutions to formulate and implement reasonable business plans for 2011 in line with credit growth and quality improvement targets set by the Government.

Commercial banks are required to reduce non-production loans in their lending structures to a maximum of 22 percent by June 30 and 16 percent by December 31, 2011.

The letter also tasks SBV branches with supervising, speeding up and settling problems that arise between local credit organisations and borrowers in line with current regulations./.