Easing the "thirst for capital" for agriculture and rural areas

Agricultural and rural credit growth accounts for a large proportion of the total outstanding debt of the economy, increasing by 5.31% compared to the end of 2024 and accounting for 23.16% of the outstanding credit of the economy. That has helped to ease the "thirst" for capital sources for this sector.

Customers transact at the Vietnam Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development. Photo: Nguyen Quang

Impressive numbers

At the press conference on the results of banking operations in the first 6 months of the year and the implementation of tasks for the last 6 months of 2025 organized by the State Bank, Deputy Director of the Department of Credit for Economic Sectors (State Bank) Nguyen Xuan Bac said that credit growth by the end of June 2025 reached 9.9%. Some sectors with a large proportion in the total outstanding credit in the economy continued to grow well, including sectors that contributed to promoting growth, such as the priority sector of agriculture and rural areas, which accounted for a large proportion in the total outstanding credit of the economy when it increased by 5.31% compared to the end of 2024 and accounted for 23.16% of the outstanding credit of the economy.

Currently, the proportion of agriculture and rural areas in the Vietnamese economy accounts for about 11-14% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), but accounts for a large proportion of the labor force and population, especially in rural areas. With the economy currently relying heavily on capital from the banking system, achieving the impressive credit growth figures above is the result of the efforts of members throughout the industry.

As a leading bank in agricultural and rural lending, Agribank General Director Pham Toan Vuong said that in the first 6 months of the year, Agribank's mobilized capital reached over VND 2.1 million billion, up 6.4% compared to the beginning of the year, the highest since 2021, of which residential deposits accounted for a large proportion. In addition, Agribank's outstanding loans to the economy reached over VND 1.85 million billion, up 7.6% compared to the beginning of the year, higher than the same period in 2024. Of which, outstanding loans to agriculture and rural areas reached over VND 1.13 million billion, accounting for over 61% of outstanding loans to the economy.

Meanwhile, up to now, the proportion of outstanding loans for the agricultural and rural sectors of HDBank has accounted for more than 22% of the total outstanding loans of the whole system, with more than half of the customers coming from rural areas and type II urban areas. Notably, in June, HDBank and BIDV signed a sub-loan contract with an initial credit limit of VND 500 billion, to implement re-lending from international capital sources under the Rural Finance Project and the Sustainable Agriculture Transformation Project (VnSAT) funded by the World Bank.

HDBank Permanent Deputy General Director Tran Hoai Nam said that HDBank determined that this is not just a normal lending activity but a part of the sustainable development strategy, contributing to the restructuring of agriculture in a green and modern direction.

Open doors for lending

On June 16, 2025, the Government issued Decree No. 156/2025/ND-CP amending and supplementing a number of articles of Decree No. 55/2015/ND-CP dated June 9, 2015 on credit policies for agricultural and rural development. In particular, Clause 2, Article 9 was amended to increase the maximum unsecured loan amount for individuals, households, cooperatives, business households, cooperatives, cooperative unions and farm owners to suit the capital needs for agricultural production of current customers.

Specifically, unsecured loans for individuals and households increased to 300 million VND; unsecured loans for cooperatives and business households increased to 500 million VND; unsecured loans for farm owners increased to 3 billion VND and unsecured loans for cooperatives and cooperative unions increased to 5 billion VND.

Along with that, amend Clause 3, Article 9 to reduce administrative procedures, creating convenience for customers when borrowing capital from credit institutions. In particular, amend Clause 1, Article 12, Clauses 2 and 3, Article 13 to assign the State Bank to regulate the restructuring of debt repayment terms for debts that are kept in the same debt group according to Decree No. 55/2015/ND-CP...

These policies have really opened the door to loans for businesses. Mr. Hoang Van Long, Deputy Director of Bien Quynh Joint Stock Company (Hoang Mai Ward, Nghe An Province) - a business specializing in supplying seafood products, shared: "To do business big, methodically and professionally, our business cannot lack the companionship of banks".

In related developments, implementing the direction of the Government and the Prime Minister in Resolution No. 46/NQ-CP dated March 8, 2025 of the Government and Directive No. 05/CT-TTg dated March 1, 2025 of the Prime Minister on increasing the scale of the credit program for the forestry and fishery sector to over VND 100,000 billion and expanding the scope and participants to the Credit Program for the agriculture, forestry and fishery sector, on April 15, 2025, the State Bank issued Official Dispatch No. 2756/NHNN-TD requesting the implementation of the Credit Program for the agriculture, forestry and fishery sector.

Accordingly, the scope and subjects of the Credit Program for the forestry and fishery sector according to Official Dispatch No. 5631/NHNN-TD dated July 14, 2023 of the State Bank are expanded into the Credit Program for the agriculture, forestry and fishery sector. Specifically, the loan subjects are customers with projects and plans to serve production and business activities in the agriculture, forestry and fishery sector. The program is implemented until the loan turnover reaches 100,000 billion VND...

Source: https://hanoimoi.vn/diu-con-khat-von-cho-nong-nghiep-nong-thon-709944.html