Hanoi (VNA) – Just 3.05% of the 40-trillion-VND aid package with an interest rate discount of 2%,🀅 approved by National Assembly in January 2022, has been disbursed so far.

The Government issued Decree 31/2022/ND-CP on the interest rate subsidy for loans given to enterprises, co-operatives and business households that took effect on May 20, 2022. Worth 40 trillion VND (1.69 billion USD), the programme is expected to be a significant source of support to help enterprises, cooperatives and business households to recover after the COVID-19 pandemic. Businesses eligible for the low interest rate support package belong to two main groups. The first includes aviation, transportation and warehousing; tourism; accommodation and food and beverages services; education and training; agriculture, forestry and fisheries; processing and manufacturing; software publishing; computer programming and related operations; and information services. The second group comprises developers of social and workers’ housing and those renovating old apartment buildings as decided by the Ministry of Construction based on proposals from people’s committees of provinces and cities. To make the package effective as expected, there have been many opinions urging changes to ensure that the budget is used and supports people and businesses promptly.

ꦯPham Minh Ton, Director of the Viet Anh Sedge Production Export Joint Stock Company, said to get such loans, there are many procedures, plus post-checks, auditing after the disbursement, requiring personnel to handle the related issues.

For cooperatives and business households, it is more difficult to access such loans because they fail to show proof of their collateral and value-added invoices, and prove their recovery capacity. Finding that it is difficult to satisfy requirements of the aid package, businesses are soon not interested in it. According to a survey by the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI), only 30% of cooperatives know about this low interest rate policy package and only about 2% of enterprises have received loans under the aid package. Associate Professor Dr. Tran Hoang Ngan, former Director of the Ho Chi Minh City Institute of Development Studies, said only 1.2 trillion VND out of 40 trillion VND has been disbursed under the aid package, which reveals that there are problems needing to be addressed.

🍨Dr. Le Duy Binh, Managing Director of Economica Vietnam, said the aid package must be designed based on market rules and must be turned into a completely commercial transaction.

Tran Duc Anh, Director of the Macroeconomics and Market Strategy under the KB Vietnam Securities Company, said strict regulations and criteria should be set up to avoid losses of state capital. However, regulations and lending requirements should be open and flexible so that banks and businesses will be confident in applying for the loans. Credit institutions reviewed the difficulties in implementing the aid package and proposed the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) make a report to the Government requesting this credit package to be turned into another form of support, according to a senior official of a major bank./.