State Bank of Vietnam highlights SMEs’ under-20% credit access and VND 60–70 trillion interest-rate relief in private-sector dialogue

At a government roundtable on implementing Politburo Resolution 68 on private sector development, State Bank of Vietnam Governor Nguyen Thi Hong outlined how monetary policy and banking operations are being steered to support private enterprises, while flagging persistent frictions in credit access and the constraints created by competing macroeconomic objectives. She cited a shift in lending toward the private sector, with private-sector outstanding credit now accounting for about 92–93% of total credit, compared with an earlier period when state-owned enterprises dominated. At the same time, she referenced Ministry of Finance figures showing small and medium-sized enterprises represent nearly 98% of firms but access under 20% of banking system credit, linking this gap to firms’ small scale, weak governance and limited transparency that makes repayment capacity harder to evidence. On pricing, she said the banking sector has worked to lower interest rates even as global rates rose, and that credit institutions reduced rates for affected borrowers by around VND 60–70 trillion and rolled out sector credit packages including for fisheries and low-income housing, funded by credit institutions rather than the state budget. She also pointed to lengthy investment and business procedures as a driver of high borrowing costs and called for more effective credit guarantee policies and faster streamlining and legal reforms, including to investment, procurement and real estate business rules, to shorten timelines, improve credit turnover and support lower interest rates.