On February 11, 2020, at the Ministry of Planning and Investment, the Signing Ceremony of an indirect lending framework contract between Small and Medium Enterprise Development Fund (SMEDF) and Saigon – Hanoi Commercial Joint Stock Bank (SHB) was held.

The support capital will be provided to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to create innovative start-ups, SMEs to join industry clusters and value chains meeting the Article 6 of Decree No.39/2018 /ND-CP dated March 11, 2018 of the Government detailing a number of articles of the Law on Supporting Small and Medium Enterprises; the Article 23 of Decree No.39/2019/ND-CP dated May 10, 2019 of the Government on the organization and operation of the SME Development Fund with the demand for loan from the Fund.

Enterprises may borrow funds from the Fund when satisfying the following conditions: having feasible projects and plans for production and business; ensuring equity capital participating in projects, production and business plans and ensuring sufficient capital for the implementation of projects, production and business plans, etc.

Representative of SHB – Ms. Ngo Thu Ha, Deputy General Director and Mr. Phan Thanh Ha – Director of SME Development Fund signing cooperation agreement

Enterprises will enjoy preferential interest rates with short-term lending rates of 4.16%/year, medium and long-term rates of 6.0%/year, and these interest rates will not change during the whole loan term. The maximum loan for each project or production and business plan must not exceed 80% of the total investment capital of each project or production and business plan. The loan term is determined in accordance with the capital recovery capacity, debt repayment capability of the enterprise and the specific conditions of each project, production and business plan but must not exceed 07 years. The maximum grace period for a project (medium and long-term loan) is 02 years. Enterprises have the right to repay debt ahead of schedule without having to pay any amount or fee of early repayment.

Speaking at the Signing Ceremony, Chairman of SMEDF’s Member Council – Ms. Hoang Thi Hong said that currently, most small and medium-sized enterprises, accounting for 98% of the total number of enterprises in the country, contribute greatly to GDP and create more than 50% of jobs for the society. The Fund performs the function of direct lending or indirect lending through the allocation of capital to commercial banks, sponsoring SMEs to start businesses creatively; supporting capacity building for SMEs. “The operation of the fund is a positive signal showing the initial effectiveness of the Government in its effort to support the private business sector. At the same time, with 2,000 billion VND of the Fund’s minimum charter capital, the target is defined as “bait capital” to attract important domestic and foreign resources of financial institutions, investment funds, commercial banks to take interest in, to join force, to pay attention to the SME sector which is still weak and lacks capital ”, Ms. Hoang Thi Hong shared.

 Attending the ceremony, the representative of SHB – Ms. Ngo Thu Ha, Deputy General Director said: “With the support from SME Development Fund, through SHB, small and medium enterprises in Vietnam will have access to capital with low and fixed interest rates during the loan term. Sharing the same commitment of accompany businesses, SHB and the SME Development Fund expect that there will be many opportunities for businesses to realize their ideas, to expand their production and business facilities, to diversify products and services, thereby growing profits, contributing to the development of the country’s economy, etc. ”

Ms. Ngo Thu Ha, Deputy General Director of SHB said: “With the support from SME Development Fund, through SHB, SMEs in Vietnam will have access to capital with low and fixed interest rates during the loan term”

In recent years, SHB has organized seminars to enhance the sharing of new provisions of relevant laws, project information and loan options suitable with each locality and region, making it easy for customers to get access to products; organized training courses on sales skills, professional skills, capacity building of staff which is a foundation for bank staff to directly advise SMEs on business management, business plan, industry information, etc.

At the same time, SHB has actively worked closely with the Association of Small and Medium Enterprises in Vietnam and Hanoi City, other associations and organizations in Vietnam and abroad, organized many programs of dialogue, connection and met directly businesses that need loans (direct sales channel). In particular, in 2020, SHB will step up its activities at the “Centers of supporting Vietnamese enterprises to export via e-commerce” at SHB’s major branches nationwide, initially being two centers opened in Thang Long Branch (Hanoi) and Saigon Branch (Ho Chi Minh City). SHB will also launch product and service packages exclusively for individual and business customers who are interested in selling through Amazon system – in which products from the Vietnamese business community, with Vietnam’s brand, will have opportunity to reach over 300 million consumer accounts in the world.

SHB has cooperated with large enterprises, leading enterprises in the industry value chain at business direction of SHB to support SMEs in market information, distribution channels, capital and technology solutions …. (sales channel for output – input partners of large customers).

Besides, SHB has continuously implemented credit programs with preferential interest rates for businesses with the amount of up to tens of thousands of billion VND. In addition, based on the needs of each customer, SHB has developed comprehensive and synchronous financial initiatives and solutions such as business financial advisory services, supporting businesses in finding customers and output market to increase business efficiency, profitability and repayment capacity, supporting debt restructuring, business restructuring, etc.