ADB continues to fund Vietnam small firms program

To come from the Asian Development Fund, the loan will have a tenure of 24 years including a grace period of 8 years and carry an interest rate of 1 percent per annum during the grace period and 1.5 percent thereafter.

The project, which kicked off in September 2004, has been funded by the ADB first policy loan for Vietnam and will encourage inter-government cooperation to identity and handle problems facing businesses.

The second phase will continue to enhance the policy and regulatory frameworks, improve SMEs access to finance, land, and domestic and international markets by improving industrial and technical standards.

It will also assist the government in establishing a national SME development strategy, including defining SMEs more specifically and setting up a modern database on SMEs.

It will help develop industrial and technical standards in tune with international best practices and make this information available to SMEs.

SMEs are individual and household businesses that have a maximum registered capital of VND30 billion ($1.85 million) or employ a maximum of 500 workers.

Source: Thanh Nien News, 27 Dec 2006