Proposal to support 2% interest rate for businesses borrowing capital to implement ESG projects

The Government has submitted a Draft Resolution to the National Assembly on a number of special mechanisms and policies for private economic development. Chapter IV of the Resolution proposes financial, credit and public procurement support for private enterprises.

Regarding financial and credit support, the draft resolution proposes details on interest rate support for enterprises in the private economic sector. Specifically, the draft resolution proposes that enterprises receive interest rate support of 2%/year from the State when borrowing capital to implement green, circular projects and apply the environmental, social, and governance (ESG) framework.

In addition, there are regulations on the Small and Medium Enterprise Development Fund with functions of lending to small and medium enterprises, lending to startups, providing initial capital for innovative startup projects, incubator construction projects, investing in local investment funds, private investment funds to increase capital supply for small and medium enterprises, innovative startups, receiving and managing loan capital, funding, aid, contributions, and entrustment from organizations and individuals to support small and medium enterprises.

Proposal to support interest rate of 2%/year for green projects, ESG projects (Photo: IT).

In the report examining the draft resolution, the Economic and Financial Committee of the 15th National Assembly noted that from the results of the thematic supervision on "Implementation of Resolution No. 43/QH15 on fiscal and monetary policies to support the Socio-economic Recovery and Development Program and the National Assembly's resolutions on a number of important national projects until the end of 2023", it showed that the policy of supporting interest rates of 2%/year through the commercial banking system achieved very low results and did not come into effect.

This comes from a number of reasons such as unclear criteria for determining loan beneficiaries, beneficiaries who are eligible for the policy but are afraid of inspection and examination, considering the costs incurred to monitor records, documents, comply with post-audit procedures, inspection, auditing, and examination if receiving interest support, and concerns about the case of having the interest support amount revoked while it has been accounted for in the company's profits and distributed as dividends to shareholders.

Therefore, to ensure that the policy of interest rate support for enterprises in the private economic sector, business households, and individual businesses borrowing capital to implement green and circular projects and apply the environmental, social, and governance (ESG) standards framework is truly effective, it is necessary to ensure clear regulations on criteria for determining lending subjects, strictly implement the principles of inspection and examination activities in Article 5 of the draft resolution and Resolution 68, and ensure that State agencies and commercial banks implement the principles of self-determination and self-responsibility when implementing the policy.

In addition, the National Assembly 's Economic and Financial Committee proposed considering only implementing lending and interest rate subsidy tasks through certain banks to ensure effective policy implementation.

The National Assembly's Economic and Financial Committee also proposed to study and supplement the operating mechanism of the Small and Medium Enterprise Development Fund and other types of enterprise support funds to coordinate with commercial banks to effectively implement interest rate support policies, and to study forms of support through banks or direct support for enterprises. In addition, the National Assembly's Economic and Financial Committee proposed to supplement the tax exemption and reduction policy for venture capital fund management companies.

Source: https://dantri.com.vn/kinh-doanh/de-xuat-ho-tro-lai-suat-2-voi-doanh-nghiep-vay-von-thuc-hien-du-an-esg-20250516101738910.htm