According to the Scheme of developing the microfinance system in Vietnam towards 2020 approved by the Prime Minister under Decision No. 2195/QĐ-TTg dated December 6, 2011, the SBV is assigned to implement the several tasks for the stage from 2011 to 2015 and from 2016 to 2020.
For the stage from 2011 – 2015, the SBV formulates and issues guiding documents for implementing several contents of the Law on Credit Institutions relating to microfinance; advises the government on the management of microfinance activities of political, socio-political and non-governmental institutions. In addition, the SBV also supports microfinance institutions in training staffs and experts with the establishment of the Association of Microfinance, several training centers, and a shared database of microfinance.
For the second stage from 2016 to 2020, the SBV plans to study and propose the plan for the legal framework revision to facilitate the diversification of microfinance operations and the expansion of microfinance products and services; study and issue legal regulations to facilitate the operational linkage between the credit institutions and microfinance institutions.
To accelerate microfinance operations, the SBV governor issued Decision No. 572/QĐ-NHNN on March 30, 2012 to approve the Plan of implementing the Government Scheme for the development of the microfinance system in Vietnam towards 2020. The plan is aimed at fostering the development of microfinance institutions as one of the measures to grant loans to the poor, low-income people, microenterprises and small enterprises to support economic development and to implement the national strategy of sustainable poverty reduction and ensuring social security. Meanwhile, several measures are in place to closely monitor microfinance institutions in accordance with laws and to direct them to safe and sustainable development.
Microfinance in Vietnam is the banking service that supplies low-income households with small loans (microcredit) to help them participate in production or start a small business. Microfinance entails other services including credit, saving, insurance because financial products are in great demand among poor and low-income people who have difficulties in accessing loans of the official financial institutions. Microfinance organization is a type of credit institution specialized in providing banking services to low-income individuals, households and small enterprises. There are 3 mincrofinance organizations namely M7, TYM (located in Ha Noi) and Thanh Hoa (located in Thanh Hoa province) with charter capital amounts of VND 15.5, VND 135.8 and VND 6.1 billion respectively.
Over the past years, implementing the Communist Party and the State’s innovation orientation, Vietnam has obtained remarkable achievements in economic development, especially in poverty reduction, which is partly attributed to microfinance activities. Microfinance has asserted its importance in helping poor and low-income people to access banking and financial services at their convenience. It is the fact that microfinance operations have great social implications and are growing in many countries , especially in developing countries like Vietnam.
VMH