Prime Minister requests simplification of lending conditions

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh has just issued an official dispatch on continuing to implement solutions to increase access to credit capital, remove difficulties for production and business, and fulfill budget collection tasks.

The dispatch said that access to credit capital is still difficult, credit growth is low - only 6.29% as of October 11 - much lower than the same period in 2022 (11.12%) as well as the whole year's management orientation (14-15%).

Therefore, one of the requirements that the Prime Minister assigned to the State Bank is to simplify procedures and lending conditions, increase the application of information technology, and digital transformation to continue to reduce interest rates. The Prime Minister noted the effective implementation of the VND 120,000 billion credit package for social housing and the VND 15,000 billion package for the forestry and fisheries sector. According to the Ministry of Construction, after half a year of implementing the Project to build 1 million social housing units, the VND 120,000 billion credit package has only disbursed VND 83 billion out of the total VND 1,095 billion signed loan contracts, or less than 0.07%.

The Prime Minister also requested the State Bank to deploy appropriate credit packages of commercial banks to support people and businesses to overcome difficulties and boost production and business. In particular, credit should be focused on priority areas and growth drivers of the economy (especially investment, consumption, and export). Credit should be controlled in areas with potential risks. At the same time, there should be policies to encourage credit to feasible projects and businesses serving growth drivers.

The State Bank also needs to closely follow the market to proactively operate monetary policy, ensure major balances of the economy, and operate policy tools such as exchange rates, interest rates, and money supply in a rhythmic and synchronous manner. This is to remove difficulties, best meet the capital needs of the economy, thereby promoting production and business.

The Ministry of Finance is assigned to continue to have solutions on tax exemption, reduction, and extension of payment of taxes, fees, charges, and land rents to support people and businesses; have measures to actively and effectively increase revenue and reduce expenditure; strengthen revenue management, prevent revenue loss, fight smuggling, trade fraud, and tax evasion; focus on handling and recovering tax arrears.