That is the opinion of Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc during his acknowledgements of the great contributions of the banking sector to the economic development in 2017 at the online conference setting orientations for the banking industry in 2018, which was held in the afternoon of January 9, 2018.
2017 was an excellent year when Vietnam made a strong and comprehensive breakthrough, having overachieved all of the 13 targets set out in the plan. The economic growth was at 6.81%, higher than the target level of 6.7%; the average inflation was at 3.53%, lower than the target level of 4% set at the beginning of the year; the trade surplus was USD 2.7 billion; the exports were estimated at USD 214 billion, up by 21% compared to previous year. Among the exports, agriculture had a strong recovery and reached over USD 36 billion. All three main sectors of the economy grew well with the industrial production taking the lead of 9.5% growth, of which the processing and manufacturing sub-sector grew by 14%. The quality of the growth was improved with an increase of 5.87% in the country’s labor productivity and a rise of about 5% for ICOR. The business environment in Vietnam increased by 14 ranks, the national competitiveness rose by 5 ranks, the global innovation index (GII) increased by 12 ranks. These results reflect a successful year for the macro-economic management with the proactive policies and the firm, harmonious synchronous coordination, especially between the monetary policy and the fiscal policy. These achievements were made with the important contributions of the monetary policy and the banking activities, which are both a resource and a driving force for the socio-economic development of the country.
PM Nguyen Xuan Phuc speaks at the conference
Speaking at the conference, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc spoke highly of the SBV’s successful management, reflected through main points of:
Firstly, the SBV managed the monetary policy in an active, flexible and effective manner, thereby maintaining the stability of the money market, continuing to curb the inflation at 3.53%, which was lower than the target level set by the National Assembly; hence, creating room for the Government to adjust the prices of state-managed commodities and creating favorable conditions for the fiscal policy and other macro policies to take effect, formulating the basis for maintaining the macro-economic stability and controlling the inflation at a low level in the medium and long-terms.
Secondly, the SBV managed the exchange rates, the money and gold markets in a flexible manner, thereby facilitating the exports, effectively implementing the objectives of anti-dollarization and anti-gold-hoarding.
Thirdly, the banking sector continued to promote its role in providing funds to the economy. The total credit outstanding by the end of 2017 was VND 6,500 trillion, an increase of 18% from last year. It means that the banking sector provided an additional VND 1,200 trillion to the economy in 2017. This result was a significant contribution to boost the 2017 economic growth rate to 6.81%, higher than the target level. The credit financing focused mainly on the priority fields through the preferential credit programs, supporting directly the key sectors of the economy. The credit financing for high-tech enterprises in the agriculture sector, the support industries, the exports, SMEs, etc. all had high growth rates. The credit financing for risky sectors (securities, real estate, etc) was controlled strictly.
Fourthly, the restructuring of the credit institution system and the NPL settlement - the second phase (2016-2020) was seriously implemented by the banking sector right from the beginning of the term of office. The banking sector actively formulated and submitted to the Government the Scheme on restructuring the credit institution system associated with the NPL settlement, and proactively recommended to improve the legal framework to accelerate the restructuring process. As a result, the two important legal documents were approved and passed by the National Assembly, namely Resolution 42 on pilot settlement of the NPLs and the Law on amendments and supplements to the Law on Credit Institutions.
The initial results of the restructuring and NPL settlement have helped the banking industry to continue to maintain the stability and to prevent the risks of systemic insecurity, and to gradually improve the operational situations of the weak credit institutions; at the same time, facilitating joint-stock commercial banks to enhance their services and improve their competitiveness, thereby, continuing to strengthen the public confidence in the banking sector and contribute greatly to the overall restructuring of the economy.
Fifthly, the administrative reforms and the improvement of the business environment in the banking industry continued to achieve many encouraging results, facilitating enterprises and individuals to access easily bank loans and the banking services. Therefore, for the indicator of “credit access”, Vietnam now ranks the fourth in ASEAN. 2017 is the second consecutive year the SBV has taken the lead among the Government ministries and agencies in terms of the administrative reform indicators.
Sixthly, the system of commercial banks implemented promptly and effectively the social protection activities; the communications by the SBV were conducted successfully through regular press conferences with a view to providing the society with information about the monetary policy management and the banking operations to make sure the public understands and have confidence in the banking sector.
However, the PM also pointed out several limitations of the banking industry, such as the slow process of NPL settlement and the restructuring of the credit institutions, the lack of determination of several credit institutions in formulating roadmaps and measures for restructuring, as well as business development strategies, etc. In order to address these limitations, the PM required the banking sector to implement six key tasks, specifically as follows:
First, continue to manage effectively the monetary policy and the exchange rates in harmonization with the fiscal policy and other macro policies to achieve the objectives of stabilizing the macro-economy and curbing inflation.
Second, continue the credit expansion with a focus on priority development areas, while develop the credit market for consumption and micro-finance in order to promote production; continue to strictly control credit for the risky areas.
Third, concentrate the resources to implement the Scheme on restructuring the credit institution system associated with the NPL settlement, helping well-performing credit institutions to consolidate and improve their capacity and operational efficiency.
Fourth, continue to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of the management, inspection and supervision of the SBV in order to promptly detect and minimize any violations, especially serious violations in the monetary and banking operation, contributing to the enhancement of the public confidence in the banking system.
Fifth, develop and apply modern banking products and services to keep pace with the new development trends of the fourth industrial revolution (4IR), while focusing on ensuring the security and safety in order to limit risks and crimes from the negative side of the digital technology; Continue to implement the non-cash payment scheme; implement the scheme on improving the legal framework for the management and handling of various types of virtual assets, electronic money and virtual money; Promote the communication and financial education to raise the public awareness and encourage the people to use financial and banking services safely and effectively; Promote the implementation of projects to increase the resilience of the banking system to systemic risks.
Sixth, accelerate the administrative reforms, especially the administrative procedure reform; Enable enterprises and individuals to access banking services; Create favorable conditions for business and investment activities and encourage start-ups to improve competitiveness.
Le Hang