BIDV collaborates to help businesses overcome capital constraints

DNHN - At the Forum, BIDV representatives, experts and speakers exchanged and shared many experiences to resolve difficulties and obstacles for businesses in accessing capital sources to stabilise production and business operations and develop sustainably

The policy forum for small and medium-sized enterprises with the theme “Accessing capital - Clearing bottlenecks” was organised by the Vietnam Association of Small and Medium Enterprises (VINASME) in coordination with the Department of Enterprise Development (Ministry of Planning and Investment). This activity is part of the project Improving Private Sector Competitiveness (IPSC) funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

Speaking at the Forum, delegates said: Capital - considered the lifeblood of businesses - is being blocked, and the lack of capital causes many difficulties for businesses’ production and business activities. The Government has launched some financial programmes to support interest rates for businesses, but the actual implementation shows that businesses still face many difficulties and limitations in accessing these programmes. This Forum will help businesses gradually approach the assessment and credit rating criteria set out by VINASME. From there, businesses will be aware of their strengths and weaknesses to improve and innovate processes to increase their competitiveness, thereby making it easier to access credit capital sources.

Representing BIDV and speaking at the Forum, Ms Nguyen Thi Kim Phuong - Deputy Director of the Corporate Customer Division, said: BIDV is one of the pioneering banks in implementing the Government’s policies and guidelines to support small and medium-sized enterprises. BIDV is also a strategic partner of VINASME, and the two sides have signed a cooperation agreement to support businesses that are members of VINASME to access BIDV’s preferential credit packages. In addition, BIDV has coordinated with VINASME to organise some workshops to enhance the capacity of businesses to access and use loan capital effectively.

BIDV also closely cooperates with domestic and international ministries, associations and organisations to implement activities to support the enhancement of financial capacity and business capacity for businesses. Specifically, BIDV cooperates with the Department of Enterprise Development, the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI), and the Vietnam Women Entrepreneurs Council (VWEC) to implement solutions to help businesses increase their access to finance and preferential loan packages from BIDV. At the same time, BIDV coordinates with the State Bank of Vietnam and the Asian Development Bank to organise forums on “Promoting the gender equality reform programme in the Asia-Pacific region” to remove financial and non-financial barriers for women-owned small and medium-sized enterprises (WSMEs) and enhancing the market access capacity for WSMEs.

With technical support from ADB, BIDV has recently built and deployed the SMEasy digital platform (https://smeasy.bidv.com.vn/) which includes many solutions to support small and medium-sized enterprises such as an online training academy; and support channel for businesses in digital transformation, business connection, product advertising, etc. The SMEasy digital platform is built on both website and mobile, with an interface designed specifically for women with a group of solutions dedicated to female business owners.

BIDV is also the first commercial bank in Vietnam to sign a Master Loan Agreement with the Small and Medium Enterprise Development Fund (Ministry of Planning and Investment). At the same time, it is the bank that best deploys capital to support the Fund; the two sides have developed a variety of credit packages and banking products and services dedicated to small and medium-sized enterprises. Over the past time, BIDV has continuously sought low-cost, preferential capital from reputable international organisations such as IFC, WB, ADB, and AFD to support small and medium-sized enterprises to enhance their financial capacity and develop more sustainably in the future.

Tin Nguyen