Workers pack clean food at BJ & T Company in the Mekong Delta city of Can Tho. (Photo: baocantho.com.vn) Specifically, with the aid from the fund, SMEs can enjoy preferential lendinginterest rates from 1.2% per year for short-term working capital loans and 4.4%per year for medium- and long-term loans. The maximum loan period is sevenyears while interest grace period is two years with maximum loan amount of 150billion VND and minimum loan amount of 300 million VND.
For collective economic organisations, such as production cooperatives, a fixedloan interest rate of 5.13% per year will be applied, with a maximum loan termof five years and a maximum loan limit of 100 billion VND.
SMEs said it is a practical and meaningful policy to support them withfinancial resources to start a business or expand production scale.
According to Hoang Thi Thanh Thanh, Director of the Thai Thanh AgriculturalCooperative, as a newly established SME, the policy is very useful for hercooperative which needs capital to develop more products and expand itsdistribution system to promote the consumption of goods, increase income forcooperative members and create more jobs for workers. Previously, it was noteasy for the cooperative to access bank loans of incentive interest rateprogrammes.
SMEs always had to take detours and ask for help from acquaintances, bothcostly and time-consuming. Despite having capital demand, many SMEs werehesitant to borrow because they were worried about not finding the rightaddresses, Thanh said.
According to Phan Thanh Ha, Director of the fund, currently, the fund hassigned framework contracts with six commercial banks including BIDV, Bac A Bank,HD Bank, Military Bank, SHB and Sacombank, to carry out indirect lending.
Pursuant to Government Decree 39/2019/ND-CP on the organisation and operationof the Small and Medium Enterprise Development Fund, and indirect lendingregulations, SMEs will be responsible for submitting loan applications at banktransaction offices or by post. Banks will be responsible for receiving loanapplications from SMEs before evaluating and making lending decisions forqualified SMEs, Ha said.
The fund decided to transfer capital to banks to provide indirect loans for 39projects with a total amount of 682 billion VND by the end of 2023, which showsmany SMEs accessed aid from the fund, Ha said.
The Small and Medium Enterprise Development Fund, established in 2019, is anoff-budget financial fund and operates for non-profit purposes. The fund'spurpose is to improve the competitiveness of SMEs, contribute to increasingincome and creating jobs for workers. At the same time, it is expected toimprove the efficiency of State capital management in supporting SMEs./.
VNA
