On August 11, 2022, at the Office of the Government, a national meeting between the Prime Minister and the business community themed “Adapting proactively, Recovering rapidly and Developing sustainably” was organized in hybrid mode, connecting between Hanoi with various locations nationwide. The Meeting was convened under the chairmanship of Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh, with the attendance of Deputy Prime Minister Le Minh Khai, Governor Nguyen Thi Hong of the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV), together with several Ministers, leaders and representatives of various Ministries, agencies, local authorities, associations and businesses.
An overview of the Meeting
The Conference aimed to assess the impacts of the world economic situations on Vietnam’s economy; the practical situation in Vietnam, the difficulties and challenges that the business community has been facing; the achieved results in the implementation of the Government’s policies and measures over the past time.
In addition, the Conference was also an opportunity for the Government and the Prime Minister to listen to various sharings, recommendations and initiatives from the business community in order to resolve the existing difficulties and obstacles in the implementation of the current policies, contributing to the socio-economic development and the growth of the business community in the right direction toward healthiness and sustainability.
Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh speaks at the Meeting
Speaking at the Meeting, Governor Nguyen Thi Hong emphasized that the SBV and the banking industry had shared the difficulties with and accompanied the businesses, especially those affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, through specific policies, such as: waiving and reducing the interest and banking fees for businesses and the people, with a total reduced amount estimated at VND 50 trillion. In addition, the SBV had promulgated multiple policies allowing the credit institutions to reschedule the debt payment, exempt and reduce the interest and banking fees, maintain the debt classifications, thereby helping businesses to access bank loans even in times of difficulties and with temporary inability to pay back existing debts.
Governor Nguyen Thi Hong speaks at the Meeting.
The SBV Governor also shared with and listened to the opinions from the participating businesses. However, she said that the SBV has been under big pressure from many sides. Regarding to the interest rates, the businesses are requesting for further reduction, while the depositors are demanding an appropriate interest rate level in the context of increasing inflation. Moreover, regarding credit for the real estate market, there have been opinions about easing the credit policy for the real estate market. However, a lot of other businesses are requesting to focus credit resources on production and business operations. This has been really a big pressure for the SBV, and also for the Government and the Prime Minister in the macro-economic management.
Therefore, the stability of the macro-economy, the money and the forex markets has been identified as the ultimate goal. The assurance of the macro stability is to create the foundation for a rapid recovery and sustainable development. The SBV Governor added that, following that goal, the SBV has always managed the monetary policy in order to control the inflation, maintain the macro-economic stability and the stability of the money and the forex markets, and ensure safe and sound banking operations of the credit institutions.
Toward the end of the Meeting, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh highly appreciated the opinions and recommendations made by the business community, as well as the discussions and feedbacks by the representatives of the relevant Ministries and agencies. The Prime Minister urged the business community and the business associations to take specific solutions and join hands with the Ministries, agencies and local authorities to remove all existing difficulties, heading towards a rapid economic recovery and sustainable development.
Le Hang