MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Vietnam Sets 10-Year Microfinance Strategy, French Development Agency Donates $1.3m

The Prime Minister of Vietnam recently approved a National Microfinance Strategy, which aims to develop a safe and sustainable microfinance system to ensure social welfare and sustainable poverty eradication in the country. The strategy involves building a comprehensive legal framework to facilitate microfinance activities, improving the capacity of policy makers and microfinance institutions (MFIs), improving the monitoring capacity of the government and raising public awareness of microfinance. The strategy’s implementation will be divided into two stages, 2011-2015 and 2015-2020 [1]. The text of the document is not available online.

Vietnamese microfinance has also received support from the French Development Agency, a bilateral development finance institution, through a EUR 1 million (USD 1.34 million) grant to the State Bank of Vietnam. The grant will support the state bank’s “Improvement of the legal framework and strengthening of the supervision and management ability of the microfinance sector in Viet Nam” technical assistance project, which is expected to promote a financially and institutionally sustainable microfinance sector [2].

By Kristha Abores, Research Associate

About State Bank of Vietnam:
The State Bank of Vietnam is an agency of the government of Vietnam. It was founded in 1951 as the Vietnam National Bank and was renamed as State Bank of Vietnam. It performs monetary and banking activities and acts as the Central Bank of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.

About French Development Agency:
The French Development Agency (Agence Française de Développement, AFD) is a bilateral development finance institution that was founded in 1941 and is responsible for disbursing development assistance to underdeveloped countries. In 2009, AFD made commitments of USD 9 billion to approximately 60 countries.

Sources and Additional Resources:

[1] “Government of Vietnam Approves National Microfinance Strategy,” http://www.microfinancegateway.org/p/site/m/template.rc/1.9.55907/

[2] “French grant to boost microcredit programmes,” http://vietnamnews.vnagency.com.vn/Economy/218660/french-grant-to-boost-…

MicroCapital.org article, April 1, 2011, “MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Sacombank of Vietnam Issues 10-Year $150m Subordinated Syndicated Loan Arranged By the Netherlands Development Finance Company (FMO) to Support Banking, Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs),”https://www.microcapital.org/microcapital-brief-sacombank-of-vietnam-issu…

MicroCapital.org article, August 30, 2010, “MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Vietnam’s First Licensed Microfinance Institution TYM is Operational,”https://www.microcapital.org/microcapital-brief-vietnam%E2%80%99s-first-l…

MicroCapital Universe Profile: State Bank of Vietnam, https://www.microcapital.org/microfinanceuniverse/tiki-index.php?page=State+Bank+of+Vietnam

MicroCapital Universe Profile: French Development Agency, https://www.microcapital.org/microfinanceuniverse/tiki-index.php?page=Fre…

Browse the MicroCapital Universe and add your entry to the wiki at: https://www.microcapital.org/microfinanceuniverse/

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