In the 2011 - 2020 period, Long An province will focus on accelerating industrial investment restructuring to tap local comparative advantages like industrial processing, engineering and construction material. To meet economic development demand, the banking sector of Long An province will centrally channel capital for industrial and agricultural production to step up the process of economic restructuring.
Diversifying capital mobilisation forms
According to the State Bank of Vietnam’s Long An Province Branch, at the end of 2010, Long An province had 29 branches of commercial banks (including the head office of Great Trust Commercial Joint Stock Bank) with 154 transaction points in 14 districts and cities. Banks are concentrated in Tan An City, Ben Luc, Duc Hoa, Can Giuoc and Can Duoc districts. The province also has 19 local people’s credit funds and one central people’s credit fund. As regards services, commercial banks provide a wide range of banking services. The number of automated teller machine (ATMs) and points of sales (POSs) keeps increasing. By the end of 2010, the province had 115 ATMs and 63 POSs, thus facilitating companies to pay salary through bank accounts as expected by the Prime Minister’s Directive 20/2007/CT-TTg. As many as 22,890 State workers are receiving salaries through bank accounts and banks have issued 458,450 ATM cards to workers and other users.
At the end of 2010, operating capital of credit institutions in Long An province reached VND223,255 billion, an increase of VND5,833 billion (33.48 percent) over 2009. In particular, their outstanding loans totalled VND21,333 billion, a rise of VND5,840 billion (37.69 percent) against 2009, and their nonperforming loan ratio was 1.16 percent. In 2010, banks in Long An province made a combined profit of VND262.5 billion.
In the first six months of 2011, according to the report by commercial banks and the monitoring result of the SBV - Long An Branch, none of 31 commercial bank branches, transaction offices, or Great Trust Bank violated Circular 02/TT-NHNN of the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) on the ceiling rate of 14 percent. According to Mr Ha Van Duc, Deputy Director of the SBV - Long An Branch Credit institutions have reformed service style to win the trust of customers and enhance competitiveness.
No banks violate interest rate ruling
According to the SBV, Long An is an agricultural province; thus, the capital demand for agricultural production in Dong Thap Muoi district is very high. According to the instruction of the SBV, credit institutions always give priority to agricultural and rural development and economic restructuring in Long An.
Long An is carrying out its socioeconomic development strategy towards 2020, aiming to become an industrialised locality. One of the major orientations of the province is to attract investment for production and development, socio-economic infrastructure development and exportation, to maximise local advantages. In 2011 - 2020, Long An will accelerate investment restructuring to centralise its capital on industries with competitive advantages (processing, engineering, construction material, etc). Hence, the investment in companies, especially well-performing small and medium enterprises (SMEs), is a high priority of commercial banks.
In the first six months of 2011, outstanding loans for manufacturing sectors accounted for 22 percent of total outstanding loans and the ratio will be brought to 16 percent as of December 31, 2011. Banks that violate this roadmap will be seriously punished. So far, no banks in the province have breached regulations on ceiling interest rates either.
Lan Ngoc
Vietnamese
