Green credit offers many opportunities for breakthroughs in agriculture, rural areas, and farmers.

The inclusion of organic and circular farming models in the list of eligible credit interest rate support under Decree 55/2015, as amended and supplemented by Decree 116/2018, as well as the issuance of a new Decree on the pilot mechanism for developing a circular economy , will provide green credit in the agricultural sector with many opportunities for growth.

In 2025, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development aims for a GDP growth rate of 3.4-3.5% for the entire sector; and agricultural, forestry, and fisheries export turnover of approximately 64-65 billion USD. This includes emphasizing plans to restructure the agricultural economy towards efficient, sustainable, transparent, responsible, and multi-value-integrated development; while also encouraging the development of large-scale agriculture in an organic and circular manner.

One of the key tasks set by the Ministry this year is to reorganize production into specialized farming areas, linked to geographical indications, traceability, and the establishment of codes for planting and farming areas. In addition, it aims to strongly develop cooperative economics, support linkages along the value chain, and replicate effective models within the Project for the Development of One Million Hectares of High-Quality Rice in the Mekong Delta with Green Growth.

The above orientations of the agricultural sector show that the "greening" of the agricultural economy is the dominant trend and is encouraged and prioritized for development nationwide. This also suggests that in 2025 and subsequent years, the "green agriculture" sector will be the focus of preferential policies supporting both legal investment and financial and credit aspects. In particular, policies supporting and offering preferential interest rates and easier access to commercial bank loans will become more open.

Observing the situation up to the end of 2024, it can be seen that agriculture and rural areas remain the sector receiving the most priority and preferential programs from the banking system compared to other sectors of the economy. Just considering lending activities in the rice production and trading sector in the Mekong Delta alone, by the end of 2024, credit institutions had lent approximately 124,000 billion VND.

Regarding the Project to Develop One Million Hectares of High-Quality Rice, dozens of large-scale models have now accessed preferential loan capital, and commercial banks have committed to unlimited credit limits. Meanwhile, for the preferential interest rate loan package for the forestry and fisheries sectors, the initial limit of 15,000 billion VND has now been increased to 60,000 billion VND with the participation of dozens of commercial banks. Outstanding loans in many localities for this sector have reached 4,000 - 5,000 billion VND, supporting 1-2% interest rates for thousands of businesses.

Dozens of models under the Project to Grow 1 Million Hectares of High-Quality, Low-Emission Rice in the Mekong Delta have accessed preferential interest rate credit.

Entering 2025, keywords such as "green economy," "green agriculture," and "circular economy" are once again emphasized by the banking sector in many localities as targets for credit growth. For example, in Ho Chi Minh City and Dong Nai, the banking sector in these localities, in their 2025 plans, aims to strengthen the development of "green credit," following the direction of the Government and the State Bank of Vietnam, to contribute to the transformation of the economy towards green growth and low carbon emissions.

At the government level, the Ministry of Planning and Investment is currently drafting a Decree on the pilot mechanism for developing a circular economy. This draft proposes that projects in the fields of agriculture, forestry, and fisheries; industry; renewable energy; and construction materials will be prioritized for preferential green loans from credit institutions, investment funds, and cooperation with entities authorized to issue green bonds.

Meanwhile, regarding the banking sector, the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) leadership stated that the agency is currently reviewing preferential policies in Decree 55/2015/ND-CP and Decree 116/2018/ND-CP (on credit policies serving agricultural and rural development). It is highly likely that areas such as organic agriculture and circular economy will be added and codified in the revised decrees in the near future. This will facilitate easier access to loans for cooperatives and farmers, allowing them to borrow at higher limits without requiring additional collateral.

From an implementation perspective, observations show that dozens of commercial banks, such as VietinBank, Agribank, TPBank, MB, etc., have already developed sets of environmental and social standards for projects and loan partners and customers. These banks have also been quite proactive in designing specific products for customers in the agricultural sector to create flexible mechanisms for financing and expand access to green financial services.

Based on the above developments, it can be concluded that in 2025, with the target of 16% credit growth for the entire banking system, it is highly likely that from the early months of the year, a series of banks will aggressively launch products and services related to green banking and the green economy. In particular, for the agricultural and rural sector, the competition among commercial banks in financing green agriculture projects, organic farming, and agricultural value chain linkages will be quite intense. Currently, besides Agribank, a number of other banks such as HDBank, LPBank, KienlongBank, NamABank, BacABank, NCB, etc., are directing credit flows towards key agricultural areas.

Source: https://thoibaonganhang.vn/tin-dung-xanh-cho-tam-nong-nhieu-co-hoi-but-pha-159838.html