Unblocking credit for small and medium enterprises

Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) account for a large proportion of operating enterprises, but still face difficulties in accessing credit capital. The Credit Guarantee Fund for SMEs in Can Tho City and Kienlong Commercial Joint Stock Bank (Kienlongbank) Can Tho Branch have just signed a cooperation agreement on credit guarantee, providing capital with preferential interest rates for SMEs. The credit guarantee will help enterprises remove financial barriers and expand production and business.

Investing capital in production

The cooperation agreement between the Credit Guarantee Fund for SMEs in Can Tho City and Kienlongbank Can Tho Branch aims to support the business community in the city to access credit promptly and quickly. Accordingly, the Credit Guarantee Fund for SMEs and Kienlongbank Can Tho Branch will expand their scope of operations according to the administrative boundaries of the new Can Tho City after the merger. The bank will prioritize credit granting to businesses that have been granted guarantee certificates by the Fund. The two parties will accompany businesses from the stage of accessing capital to project implementation, strengthen consulting, support businesses in financial management, risk management, and help businesses develop sustainably... The signing of the cooperation agreement between the two units is considered an important step forward, realizing the policy of considering the private economy as a driving force for development, creating a more flexible and effective capital access channel for SMEs. At the same time, it affirms the long-term cooperative relationship for mutual development between the Fund and the bank to ensure capital flows to the right subjects, ensuring capital safety.

Can Tho City Credit Guarantee Fund for SMEs and Kienlongbank Can Tho Branch signed a 3-party cooperation agreement with the enterprise.

Since its establishment and operation, the Credit Guarantee Fund for SMEs in Can Tho City has issued guarantee certificates for credit institutions to disburse over 600 billion VND to enterprises in the fields of trade - services, agriculture, forestry, fisheries, etc. As one of the enterprises that has received timely capital support thanks to the Credit Guarantee Fund for SMEs in Can Tho City, Ms. Truong Thi Thoa, Deputy General Director of Quoc Viet Can Tho Auto Joint Stock Company, said: "Kienlongbank and the Guarantee Fund have accompanied and supported the company to invest in developing the transport vehicle sector. The company is expanding its investment into the electric vehicle sector and has received a commitment from the two units to continue accompanying. The company also hopes to increase its loan limit with preferential loan interest rates to increase operational efficiency when investing in green, environmentally friendly means of transport".

To create a breakthrough in scale and competitiveness, develop rapidly and sustainably in terms of quantity, scale, quality and operational efficiency, small and medium enterprises must have adequate investment resources. This is the group of subjects that are interested in credit support in the form of guarantee certificates that the Credit Guarantee Fund and credit institutions are aiming for. According to Decree No. 39/2018/ND-CP, subjects that are granted credit guarantees in the fields of agriculture, forestry and fisheries; industry and construction, enterprises with the number of employees paying social insurance not exceeding 200 people, revenue not exceeding 200 billion VND or capital not exceeding 100 billion VND (taken from the financial report of the previous year). In the field of trade and services, enterprises with the number of employees paying social insurance not exceeding 100 people, revenue not exceeding 300 billion VND or capital not exceeding 100 billion VND...

Commitment to accompany and support

According to Mr. Le Van Son, Chairman of the Credit Guarantee Fund for SMEs in Can Tho City, enterprises with feasible plans and equity capital participating in the production and business plan with a maximum of 20% of the project. The guarantee fund will consider issuing a guarantee certificate on the registered equity capital of the enterprise. The collateral may include assets formed in the future of the enterprise from loan capital for investment in production and business or the enterprise's own assets, or assets of a third party according to regulations. During the process of granting credit guarantees, the fund and commercial banks have an agreement on preferential interest rates for enterprises. When borrowing capital from banks with a guarantee certificate from the Fund, the bank will consider applying preferential interest rates for each specific enterprise and can be reduced by 0.5-1%/year. For enterprises in the group of subjects supported by credit guarantees, the Fund will send staff to coordinate with banks to work specifically with enterprises, survey capital needs, product supply contracts with partners, cash flow of enterprises... If guaranteed, the Fund will coordinate with banks to quickly issue guarantee certificates to lend for production and business purposes.

According to Mr. Ngo Hoang Khai, Director of Region 8, and Director of KienlongBank Can Tho Branch, Kienlongbank and the Credit Guarantee Fund for SMEs in Can Tho City are very interested in projects in the fields of agriculture , rural areas, and OCOP enterprises, which have many preferential policies and mechanisms to support enterprises. In the OCOP enterprise group, Kienlongbank is also interested in providing unsecured credit based on the cash flow of enterprises. This is a very good mechanism to support OCOP enterprises in expanding production and business. Kienlongbank also has a loan product linking 4 houses. In particular, when enterprises and cooperatives are linked with farmers, the bank will lend to farming households that buy agricultural goods and materials from enterprises, the unsecured loan amount is up to 100 million VND and helps enterprises take the initiative in cash flow. Kienlongbank is committed to being ready to guide and directly support enterprises so that they can access bank capital as quickly and effectively as possible.

According to Mr. Le Thanh Tien, Deputy Director of the State Bank of Vietnam Branch Region 14, as of the end of August 2025, the total outstanding debt in Can Tho City was 307,000 billion VND, of which the outstanding loan balance for SMEs accounted for about 51,000 billion VND, accounting for more than 16.6% of the total outstanding debt. This ratio can be considered quite low compared to the contribution of the business community in Can Tho City. The signing of cooperation between the SME Credit Guarantee Fund and the bank is an important step for businesses to boldly expand production, innovate technology, improve competitiveness, thereby contributing to promoting the socio-economic development of the locality and the region. The State Bank of Vietnam Branch always pays attention to and closely directs credit institutions in the region to implement many solutions to support businesses, especially through credit guarantee mechanisms, preferential credit packages and reform of administrative procedures in banking activities. In the coming time, the State Bank of Vietnam, Branch 14, will continue to direct, orient, and create favorable conditions for commercial banks and the Credit Guarantee Fund for SMEs to promote their role as financial intermediaries, ensure system safety, and improve credit quality. Enterprises need to boldly share and proactively build transparent and sustainable business strategies to receive the most effective support from the banking system.

Article and photos: MINH HUYEN

Source: https://baocantho.com.vn/khoi-thong-tin-dung-cho-doanh-nghiep-nho-va-vua-a191329.html