Vietnam introduces subsidy rate to help farming industry

Vietnam's Prime Minister is offering a 2% interest rate subsidy for medium- and long-term loans in 2010 to help the farming sectors among other industries to develop production.

The subsidy will only be applied to loans in the Vietnamese Dong (VND) for investors in areas such as agro-forestry, aquaculture, processing industries, sci-tech development and the purchase and trading in agro-forestry products and salt.

Lenders are State commercial banks, joint stock commercial banks, financial companies, joint venture banks, foreign bank branches operating in Vietnam, wholly-foreign invested banks and the central people's credit fund.

Subsidised loans will last 24 months.

The government has adopted a 4% subsidy programme for short-term bank loans to help businesses weather the global financial turbulence. The programme will end on December 31, 2009.

The newly-signed decision is expected to support the government's economic recovery efforts, speed up economic restructuring and maintain macro-economic stability.