The Vietnam Development Bank (VDB) must more completely fulfil its role as an efficient financial and credit organ of the government in implementing the state’s fiscal policies.

At a working session with VDB leaders in Hanoi on August 11, Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung highly rated the bank’s efforts to speed up production and exports, curb economic decline, maintain growth and macro-economic stability and ensure social security over the past three years.

The VDB has provided loans for major national programmes in such areas as electricity, shipbuilding, chemicals, mechanical engineering, agriculture and rural development, infrastructure construction, waste treatment and safe water supply, he said.

The Government leader, however, said that the bank’s lending is still too limited and has not yet satisfied the demand for capital for economic growth and exports. Along with this, Dung brought the bank to task for its unprofessional operations as well as its weak banking management and forecast capacity.

He urged relevant ministries and agencies to coordinate with the VDB in reviewing projects that receive its loans in order to ensure progress is being made.

VDB General Director Nguyen Quang Dung said that after three years of operation, the bank has mobilised nearly 120 trillion VND, or 7 percent of the country’s total investment capital.

It is managing loans totalling 150 trillion VND for about 4,000 projects and its export lending turnover last year tripled the 2007 figure, helping local businesses reduce input costs and increase competitiveness in the international market./.