“Key” to sustainable development of Vietnam's agricultural sector
The presentation of the Department of Cooperative Economics and Rural Development - Ministry of Agriculture and Environment at the Forum "National Cooperatives 2025 on green production transformation for sustainable development" showed that many cooperative models have proactively and successfully transformed, such as Hoa Loc General Agricultural Service Cooperative (Ben Tre) has built an organic rambutan production model, applying a chemical-free farming process, replacing it with organic fertilizers and microorganisms, helping the product achieve organic certification from the US (USDA) and Europe (EU Organic), exporting to the Netherlands and Canada with a value 20-30% higher than conventional products.
Or like Tan Binh Cooperative (Dong Thap) produces rice in a green direction, recycles straw by-products into organic substrates, or Bich Thao Coffee Cooperative (Son La) applies closed processing, greenhouse drying, meets 5-star OCOP standards and exports 97% of output to demanding markets such as Germany, the US, Japan... about 70% of agricultural cooperatives in the pilot raw material area have applied at least one form of digital technology .
Mr. Tran Thanh Dung, Chairman of the Cooperative Union of Kien Giang province, said that many sectors and localities have developed programs and plans to innovate, develop and improve the efficiency of the collective economy and achieved positive results in all fields. The system of policies and laws supporting the collective economy has been focused on building and gradually perfecting. In the context of international integration, climate change, epidemics and especially the rise of the 4th Industrial Revolution, digital transformation in agriculture is an inevitable trend, the "key" to the sustainable development of Vietnam's agricultural sector.
In the forum, the report of the State Bank showed that in recent times, closely following the Party's policies and Resolutions and the State's laws on collective economy and cooperatives, the State Bank has identified the collective economy sector in general and cooperatives in particular as one of the priority areas for the banking sector to invest in credit, directing the implementation of many solutions to expand credit, support cooperative development in general and transform production towards sustainability in particular.
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| Cooperatives need to develop and implement effective production and business plans, focusing on improving capital efficiency. |
The State Bank has completed regulations and orientations on green banking and green credit in line with the goals of green growth and sustainable development. Many mechanisms and preferential monetary and credit policies have beneficiaries being cooperatives operating in both agricultural and non-agricultural sectors such as: Regulations on unsecured loans from 100 million to 3 billion VND depending on the subjects of individuals, households, cooperatives, and cooperative unions; Unsecured loans up to 70% - 80% of the value of high-tech agricultural production and business plans, agricultural production according to linkage models, value chains to encourage and support customers to develop sustainable agricultural production. At the same time, there are specific debt handling policies in cases where customers face risks due to objective reasons, force majeure, natural disasters and epidemics on a large scale (debt structure, keeping the same debt group; debt freezing); Policy to reduce loan interest rates by a minimum of 0.2%/year compared to interest rates of loans of the same type and with corresponding terms when customers purchase agricultural insurance.
Along with that, the State Bank has directed credit institutions to implement solutions to remove difficulties in accessing capital for cooperatives. From simplifying loan procedures, being flexible in applying loan guarantee mechanisms, diversifying credit programs and products suitable for the specific characteristics of cooperatives; promoting the implementation of bank-enterprise connection programs in provinces and cities; organizing specialized credit conferences, including the collective economic sector and cooperatives to promptly grasp and remove difficulties and obstacles in accessing bank credit capital.
By the end of January 2025, there were 35 credit institutions participating in lending to cooperatives and cooperative unions with outstanding loans reaching VND 6,428 billion. In addition to the outstanding loans to cooperatives and cooperative unions mentioned above, credit institutions also lend to individuals and households who are members of cooperatives to meet the production needs of cooperatives and cooperative unions. Accordingly, the credit of the banking sector serving the production and business activities of cooperatives can be much higher, in the form of loans from individual cooperative members. According to statistics of the State Bank of Vietnam, by the end of January 2025, the outstanding loans to individuals and households engaged in production and business activities in the agricultural and rural areas were VND 2.51 million billion, accounting for 68.03% of the total outstanding loans to agriculture and rural areas.
Need for synchronous participation
However, credit for cooperatives is always low, accounting for a small proportion of the total outstanding debt of the economy. This situation is not only in the lending activities of the banking system but also in the lending activities of the Cooperative Support Fund system from the central to local levels.
The reason is that many agricultural cooperatives have a small scale of production and business, a narrow scope of operations, and lack effective production and business plans; cooperatives do not have the ability to organize and coordinate large-scale synchronous production activities (replacing small-scale production of individual households) to be able to apply green farming methods.
In addition, most cooperatives currently face difficulties in accessing finance due to limited collateral, weak financial management capacity, unstable business performance and lack of good credit records.
These are the reasons that make it difficult for credit institutions to assess and do not create credibility for credit institutions to decide to lend, especially unsecured loans. In addition, the issue of legal status of collective economic types is also a difficulty for credit institutions when determining responsibilities and debt obligations for lending to this economic type.
To promote capital to support the collective economy, the State Bank has been implementing key solutions to increase bank credit to support cooperatives in implementing green transformation and sustainable development.
In particular, direct credit institutions to immediately implement new credit policies to serve agricultural and rural development after the Government issues the Decree amending and supplementing Decree No. 55/2015/ND-CP on credit policies to serve agricultural and rural development, including new policies on increasing the level of loans without collateral for cooperatives, lending policies for developing circular economy and organic agriculture, in line with production requirements in the new situation.
At the same time, continue to direct the credit institution system to disburse loans to implement the Project of 1 million hectares of high-quality, sustainable rice, and implement production and business models according to the low-emission rice value chain.
Deploying the tasks of the banking industry to implement the National Strategy on Green Growth.
Continue to direct credit institutions to balance capital, focus credit on cooperatives operating in priority areas according to the Government's policy; increase capital sources for loans to new cooperative models that operate effectively, cooperatives participating in the development of products with strengths, production according to value chains applying high technology, with high commercial value, cooperatives that innovate and digitally transform in accordance with the provisions of law.
To facilitate the banking sector in implementing its tasks of more strongly supporting the development of collective economy and sustainable cooperatives, the State Bank of Vietnam requests ministries, branches and localities to effectively perform their role in state management of cooperatives in the direction of enhancing cooperatives' awareness of the need to transform towards sustainable development.
Promptly submit to the Prime Minister for promulgation a Decision on environmental criteria for investment projects granted green credit, issuing green bonds as a basis for credit institutions to select, appraise, evaluate and monitor when granting green credit. At the same time, prioritize, arrange and integrate capital sources, especially capital sources from the National Target Program on New Rural Development, the National Target Program on Socio-Economic Development in Ethnic Minority and Mountainous Areas to implement preferential policies and support cooperatives; continue to enhance the operational efficiency of the Cooperative Support Fund in localities, support capital, and guarantee loans for cooperatives.
The State Bank also proposed to speed up the process of granting certificates of land use rights and ownership of assets on land, especially the granting of certificates of ownership of assets on land (greenhouses, net houses, etc.) in green agricultural investment, high-tech agriculture, shortening transaction procedures to ensure, creating more favorable conditions for cooperatives and cooperative unions to access capital.
On the part of the cooperative, it is necessary to ensure that all conditions and requirements of a cooperative organization are met according to the provisions of the Law on Cooperatives 2024 and guiding documents. In particular, it is necessary to ensure that the operation is in accordance with the nature of the cooperative; develop and implement effective production and business plans, focusing on improving the efficiency of capital use and increasing labor productivity as a basis for credit institutions to lend.Source: https://thoibaonganhang.vn/xanh-hoa-de-phat-trien-ben-vung-163310.html
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