On May 21, 2025, the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) organized a Seminar on “Promoting the Implementation of the Banking Sector’s Action Plan to implement the National Strategy on Green Growth for the 2021-2030 period, and the Launching Ceremony of the Handbook on Environmental and Social Risk Management System in Credit Granting Activities. SBV Deputy Governor Dao Minh Tu attended and chaired the Seminar.
SBV Deputy Governor Dao Minh Tu delivers his opening speech at the Seminar
Delivering his opening speech at the Seminar, Deputy Governor Dao Minh Tu shared that, facing the more and more visible impacts of climate change and the environmental degradation on the economic development and social stability, green growth has become an urgent need for countries around the world - especially developing countries like Vietnam. Therefore, the transition to a green growth model, in which the economic development is combined with the environmental protection and the efficient use of resources, is an inevitable trend for Vietnam to move towards a sustainable, inclusive and prosperous future.
Over the past time, green growth has received a special attention of the National Assembly and the Government of Vietnam, which have set out the orientations and goals for the environmental protection and sustainable development in accordance with the requirements and the development conditions of the country in each period.
In particular, the National Strategy on Green Growth for the 2021-2030 period, Vision to 2050, with the goal of green growth contributing to promoting the economic restructuring in association with growth model innovation, aiming to achieve the economic prosperity, the environmental sustainability and the social equity; towards a green, carbon-neutral economy, and contributing to the goal of limiting the global warming. The Government of Vietnam Government has issued an Action Plan on Green Growth, which comprises of 18 topics, 57 task groups and 134 specific activities for the implementation by the Ministries, agencies and local authorities.
According to Deputy Governor Dao Minh Tu, identifying the important role of the bank credit in implementing the National Strategy on Green Growth, the SBV had started its implementation at an early time; back in 2015, the SBV had already integrated the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in the guiding documents on credit operations; requested to promote the growth of green credit and to manage the environmental and social risks in credit granting activities;
Particularly, in 2023, the SBV issued the Banking Sector’s Action Plan to implement the National Strategy on Green Credit for the 2021-2030 period and the programs on climate change responses in Vietnam, with 7 groups of synchronous and comprehensive tasks for the SBV entities, the SBV regional branches and the credit institutions.
"Many credit institutions have established their own Steering Committees for green transition and digital transformation; integrated green growth goals into their business strategies, and actively mobilized resources to finance green projects and sectors, thereby gradually increasing the scale and the growth rate of the green credit balance," said the Deputy Governor.
An overview of the Seminar
However, Deputy Governor Dao Minh Tu also emphasized that the implementation of the Banking Sector’s Action Plan is still facing many difficulties, including: the volume of green credit is not big enough due to the lack of a legal framework for the green taxonomy; the increasingly high requirements for governance and human resource quality in the banking sector in the areas of environment, society, climate, etc. to identify, appraise, manage and monitor the credit, as well as to advise and assist their clients to meet the new international criteria on emissions.
Thereby, the SBV, in collaboration with the GIZ and the IFC, had organized the Seminar on “Promoting the Implementation of the Banking Sector’s Action Plan to implement the National Strategy on Green Growth for the 2021-2030 period”. In the Seminar, Deputy Governor Dao Minh Tu hoped that the experts and the representatives of the commercial banks would focus on four key areas of: (1) The implementation results of the National Strategy on Green Growth for the 2021-2030 period over the past time at the commercial banks; the difficulties in the implementation process, especially in terms of the institutional frameworks; the experience of the international organizations in this area; (2) Identifying the investment targets and portfolios, as well as preferential policies and a support roadmap for businesses and green growth; (3) The commercial banks’ resources for green credit; (4) Clearly identifying the risks in green credit implementation so that the credit institutions can provide appropriate instructions and methods for their green credit implementation.
In particular, the Deputy Governor emphasized the need to introduce a handbook on the environmental and social risk management system in credit granting activities. Deputy Governor Dao Minh Tu concluded: “In the coming time, the SBV hopes to receive further support from the German Government, GIZ, the IFC and SECO in order to effectively implement the cooperation activities on sustainable finance in particular, and the cooperation to enhance the development of the Vietnamese banking system in general.”
HY