At the regular Government press conference in April 2025, on the afternoon of May 6, answering questions from the press about the construction of a credit package of about VND 500,000 billion with preferential interest rates to support businesses investing in infrastructure and digital technology, Permanent Deputy Governor of the State Bank of Vietnam Dao Minh Tu said that this is a very specific and drastic message and direction of the Government, demonstrating the right direction in focusing resources on two areas considered key, which are important conditions for sustainable development of the economy in the next period. To achieve the target of double-digit growth, these two areas need to be prioritized for early and adequate investment, creating a foundation for the development of other industries. “Aware of this and following the Prime Minister's instructions, we immediately implemented it in April and worked with banks. Currently, 21 commercial banks have registered to participate, with a total registration of VND500,000 billion, with different commitment scales,” the Deputy Governor informed.
SBV Deputy Governor Dao Minh Tu
Specifically: Four state-owned commercial banks are key banks, each registering VND60,000 billion; Twelve large-scale private joint-stock commercial banks registered VND20,000 billion/bank; Five smaller private joint-stock commercial banks registered VND4,000 billion/bank. The total reached VND500,000 billion.
The content of this credit package focuses on businesses investing in infrastructure and developing digital technology. The minimum incentive is 1% interest rate compared to the current average normal interest rate of commercial banks lending. The minimum preferential period is 2 years.
This credit package is entirely from the resources of commercial banks - not from the State budget or from abroad. Banks will make efforts to reduce costs to reduce interest rates, extend lending periods, especially the structure of short-term mobilized capital for medium and long-term lending. In addition, because infrastructure projects are large-scale and require large capital, commercial banks will have to co-finance, because a single bank cannot handle it alone. Currently, there are many large-scale national infrastructure projects and many other projects that also need investment resources.
However, compared to other credit packages, this package has two problems. First, since it is a preferential loan, it is necessary to identify the beneficiaries of the incentives. In the infrastructure sector, there are hundreds, thousands of projects, so it is necessary to indicate which fields and projects need priority to have effective coordination and concentration of resources. In the technology sector, it is also necessary to more clearly define the components and subjects that are eligible for incentives.
Secondly, infrastructure investment loans often have very long terms - at least 5 to 10 years - while commercial banks currently mainly mobilize short-term capital. Therefore, it is necessary to structure and calculate to ensure a plan for capital supply and reasonable use of capital, ensuring the safety of the credit institution system.
Therefore, these two issues require the coordination of relevant ministries and branches, including the Ministry of Industry and Trade, the Ministry of Construction, and the Ministry of Science and Technology, to identify the fields, subjects, projects, and enterprises that need support from this package. The State Bank has worked directly with relevant ministries and sent documents to the ministries requesting more clarity so that commercial banks can also balance capital sources (mobilizing short-term capital for medium- and long-term loans), while ensuring the right subjects according to the Government's goals.
“The State Bank has implemented the entire content of this since April, and certainly this May we will accelerate to soon implement the Government's goals and requirements. This morning, in the Government meeting, the Prime Minister also mentioned this content. It can be said that the Prime Minister is very interested in implementing this credit program,” said Deputy Governor Dao Minh Tu.
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