Attending the meeting were representatives of the leaders of the Department, of the SBV; Provincial National Assembly Delegation; representatives of departments, branches, commercial banks and representatives of some associations and businesses in the province.

In the first months of 2020, the Covid-19 pandemic seriously affected all aspects of social life, causing adverse impacts on the economy of the country generally and of Binh Duong province particularly. According to statistics, the economic growth rate of Binh Duong province has slowed down; all economic development indicators have growth but the speed has decreased compared to the same period in 2019; Enterprises producing export goods have appeared certain difficulties and inadequacies due to the shortage of raw materials, as well as the volume of goods exported to some countries in the markets.

Under the impact of the pandemic, under the direction of the SBV, the State Bank – Binh Duong branch has implemented many solutions on currency, exchange rate, interest rates, credit etc. to support removing difficulties for customers affected by the pandemic. As a result, after 2 months of implementing the Circular No.01/2020/TT-NHNN dated March 13, 2020, to April 30, 2020, Credit institutions in Binh Duong province have restructured the repayment period for 571 customers with a loan balance of VND 2,262 billion; exempted and reduced interest rates for 2,316 customers with outstanding loans of over VND 753 billion; lending to 4,470 new customers for preferential interest rates with cumulative sales from January 23, 2020 reaching nearly VND 25,000 billion.

At the conference, many businesses highly appreciated the efforts of the Banking industry, especially debt restructuring, loan principal rescheduling, interest rate exemption and reduction, and debt group maintenance etc. These are practical and timely policies. However, many businesses also believe that it is difficult to access these support sources due to complicated procedures, causing difficulties for businesses and interest rates are still high etc. Therefore, the Banking industry should soon have more solutions to help businesses quickly overcome difficulties.

Mr. Dao Minh Tu - Deputy Governor of the SBV speaks at the conference

Concluding the conference, Deputy Governor of the SBV Dao Minh Tu asked the entire Binh Duong Banking industry to acknowledge and supplement mechanisms and policies to remove difficulties for businesses. SBV has always created favorable conditions for businesses, people and the Banking sector to minimize the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. For credit institutions, the Deputy Governor also required the units to continue to closely guide and promote the implementation of solutions, to share maximum difficulties of customers. The SBV will strictly handle leaders and professional staff who are slow to implement, intentionally causing difficulties and troubles for enterprises, and are irresponsible. People and businesses' customers need to propose and recommend issues related to the banking sector's mechanisms and policies so that the industry can provide more effective support to overcome difficulties caused by pandemic, promoting the economy to continue developing after the pandemic and increasingly better serve the needs of monetary and banking services to all economic sectors.

On the side of Binh Duong province, Mr. Tran Thanh Liem - Chairman of the provincial People's Committee suggested the relevant departments and agencies should promptly recognize and implement strict and effective implementation of solutions to support businesses under the direction of the Central and the guiding documents issued by the Provincial People's Committee. Particularly for the provincial State Bank, it is necessary to continue directing and guiding credit institutions to promptly balance and meet capital demands for production and business activities, speeding up reform of administrative procedures, shortening the time to review loan applications, improving the access to loans of customers; promptly applying supportive measures such as rescheduling, repayment and interest rate exemptions, keeping the debt group, discount etc. for customers facing difficulties due to the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic. Along with that, promote non-cash payments; electronic payment service fee reduction and reduction programs to directly support service users, especially online payment of public administrative services; coordinating with departments, agencies, People's Committees at all levels to promptly share, inform, propagate and disseminate mechanisms, policies and solutions of the Banking industry; contribute to creating a consensus in the deployment, implementation and urge the implementation and inspection of credit institutions in the province in the observance of industry’s guidelines, regulations and instructions of the SBV.