Agribank - 'midwife' for the private economy

In 2025, Agribank is assigned to increase credit growth by 13%, equivalent to 230,000 billion VND to be supplied to the market. Of this capital, Agribank determined that it will mainly lend to customers in the private economic sector.

Mr. Le Van Binh - Director of Nga Hai Cooperative ( Ha Tinh ) - is discussing with leaders of Agribank Ha Tinh branch about the grape garden planted with a loan from this bank - Photo: THAI BINH

Agribank accompanies the private economy

Beginning the story of his journey of more than 30 years of farming and growing fruit trees, Mr. Le Van Binh, director of Nga Hai Cooperative (Nghi Xuan, Ha Tinh), said it was really difficult.

In 1993, at that time, it was extremely difficult, he was given a mortgage loan of 100 million VND by Agribank Ha Tinh branch to do agriculture. At that time, 100 million VND was 2 sacks of money. This was the first customer to borrow the most in the area at that time.

With Agribank's capital, he used it to level the ground, invest in breeding animals such as cows, goats, then ducks, geese...

But then in 1998, a herd of thousands of goats kept crashing into the cliffs without knowing what disease they had. By 2010, all their property was damaged and lost in a few days of flooding.

"Ducks and geese were all swept away by the flood, leaving nothing behind. Investment capital in agriculture can make you rich for a long time but poor very quickly. One dong of capital in agriculture, 1+1 is often equal to 0, meaning you will be left empty-handed when storms, floods, natural disasters and epidemics strike.

But the bank always encouraged him, forgave him his debt, trusted him and continued to accompany him. In 2017, Agribank lent him another 350 million VND to start over" - he said and added that without Agribank, he could not have started his business and had the foundation he has today.

After more than 30 years as a customer of Agribank Ha Tinh branch, Mr. Binh commented that this bank is truly a midwife of the private economy, especially agricultural cooperatives, as it understands farmers better.

Currently, Nga Hai Cooperative has 100 hectares of agricultural production with a total investment of 30 billion VND. Each year, Nga Hai sells 2,500 pigs and 30,000 chickens along with dozens of tons of carp, grass carp... and several tons of melons and grapes. Profit is about 1 billion VND/year.

With loans from Agribank Nghe An, Bien Quynh Company's products are now available in major supermarkets across the country - Photo: THAI BINH

Mr. Hoang Van Long, deputy director of Bien Quynh Joint Stock Company (Hoang Mai town - Nghe An), shared that he started his business in 2018. The biggest difficulty was capital, the company members had to contribute for a long time to raise 2 billion VND to build a factory and purchase equipment. The desire to bring hometown products to the national market seemed very difficult when there was no capital to import goods.

"And then the door opened when Bien Quynh accessed capital from Agribank. At that time, Mr. Ho Van Hao - director of Agribank Hoang Mai branch, now deputy director of Agribank Nghe An branch - encouraged and guided us to make a project on the company's development orientation. Immediately after that, Agribank disbursed a loan of 500 million VND" - Mr. Long recalled.

After 7 years of being accompanied by Agribank, now Bien Quynh's seafood products including fish, shrimp... have entered demanding supermarket chains such as BigC, Lotte... Not only that, recently, in May 2024, Bien Quynh's products were also exported to the US and Hong Kong.

Mr. Long informed that Bien Quynh is currently building a project to expand production with a 1.7ha factory with an investment capital of about 40 billion VND. To do business on a large scale, professionally, and professionally, private enterprises cannot do without the support of banks.

Of the approximately VND230,000 billion that will be lent to the market, Agribank will focus on lending to the private economic sector - Photo: THAI BINH

Capital is concentrated in the private economy.

Ms. Phung Thi Binh, Deputy General Director of Agribank, commented that the contribution of the private sector to the economy is very large. For Agribank, the total outstanding debt is currently more than 1.7 million billion VND, of which 65% is for loans to agriculture, rural areas and farmers.

Of which, the majority of loans are to private economic households. In addition, Agribank has nearly 500,000 billion VND in outstanding loans to legal entities, of which 90% are to private enterprises. These figures show that Agribank focuses on lending to the private economic sector.

To improve access to bank credit, Ms. Binh said that small and medium enterprises need to have more transparency in their financial records and management must also improve.

On the banking side, Agribank always devotes resources to this group. As of 2024, Agribank has 20 preferential credit programs for customers, mostly focused on the private economy.

"From the beginning of this year, we have implemented 9 preferential credit programs for all subjects, focusing on the import-export sector, production and business enterprises, small and medium enterprises, and individuals for consumer loans, business loans, etc.

In 2025, Agribank was assigned by the State Bank to increase credit growth by 13%, equivalent to 230,000 billion VND to be supplied to the market. Of this capital, Agribank determined that it would mainly lend to customers in the private economic sector" - Ms. Binh informed.

Regarding lending interest rates, according to Ms. Binh, they are 1-2% lower than normal lending rates. In particular, Agribank offers incentives for the import-export sector and value chain lending with lending interest rates 3% lower than normal rates.

The bank is surveying and will deploy loans according to the value chain, each subject in the production process.

As for seafood export, not only seafood exporting enterprises are given incentives, but also aquaculture farmers, suppliers of animal feed for aquaculture, and machinery and equipment suppliers all get reduced loan interest rates when customers are linked in the chain.

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Source: https://tuoitre.vn/agribank-ba-do-cho-kinh-te-tu-nhan-20250324142533758.htm