Vietnam in urgent need for national financial inclusion strategy
Vietnam is in urgent need for a national strategy on financial inclusion, which is in line with the country’s socio-economic development strategy, according to Deputy Governor of the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) Nguyen Kim Anh.
Hanoi (VNA) – Vietnam is in urgent need fora national strategy on financial inclusion, which is in line with the country’ssocio-economic development strategy, according to Deputy Governor of the StateBank of Vietnam (SBV) Nguyen Kim Anh.
Financial inclusion has become a global issue, and isconsidered the key to address poverty reduction and social inequality, Anhnoted.
According to the SBV, Vietnam has seen a low financialinclusion rate with about half of the population not having a bank account. In far-flungand difficult-to-reach areas, where banks have difficulties in openingtransaction offices, many people even have no idea about financial services.The situation is also partly attributable to high service fees and complicatedaccount opening process.
Though the country’s financial and banking system has madehuge progress in recent years, not all people and businesses have benefitedfrom the development. Agriculture is one of three backbones of the economy, butthe sector receives just 10 percent of total bank loans.
To address the problems, adjustments to policies andlegal framework are required to make it easier for people and businesses toaccess official basic financial services.
According to the SBV Deputy Governor, internationalexperience showed that countries with national financial inclusion strategies(NFIS) better achieved goals on financial inclusion. About 35 countriesworldwide have announced their NFISs and some 25 others are developing theirown ones.
Anh said the SBV is formulating a NFIS with acomprehensive approach, which sees financial inclusion as providing people andbusinesses with access and usage of a diverse set of basic financial services,including credit, payment, money transfer, savings, lending and insurance thatare convenient and affordable.
Financial experts also stressed that a successfulimplementation of the NFIS will require an effective coordination between thegovernment and private sectors, as seen from the experience of regional countrieslike Indonesia, the Philippines and Malaysia.-VNA
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A women withdraws money from an ATM (Photo: VNA) 
