The Vietnam Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Agribank) has made important strides in implementing preferential credit to develop a 1 million hectare high-quality, low-emission rice project in the Mekong Delta. This move not only supports the agricultural sector but also helps strengthen the rice value chain, opening up economic opportunities and sustainable development for key agricultural production areas.
As the bank with the largest lending market share in the Mekong Delta, with outstanding loans for agriculture and rural areas accounting for more than 80%, Agribank considers this an important step not only in agricultural development but also in its responsibility to the community.
Agribank General Director - Mr. Pham Toan Vuong - emphasized: "We commit to spend 30,000 billion VND for the first phase of the project, with no limit on scale and interest rates 1% lower than normal. This is a practical companion to support farmers, businesses and cooperatives in the Mekong Delta to access capital more easily."
The 1 million hectares of high-quality rice project in the Mekong Delta will be piloted from now until the end of 2025, then expanded to 2030, to create a foundation for high-quality rice production and emission reduction, meeting the increasingly demanding export demands of international markets. Agribank has coordinated with the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, the People's Committees of the Mekong Delta provinces and other credit institutions to develop a preferential credit mechanism, supporting all stages from production, processing to product consumption.
According to Mr. Pham Thien Nghia - Chairman of Dong Thap Provincial People's Committee, preferential credit policy from Agribank helps farmers increase linkages, improve value chains, and contribute to the sustainable development of the province's agricultural economy. At the same time, Mr. Tran Thanh Nam - Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development - commented that the program is a "push" to help the Mekong Delta reorganize rice production, aiming at the highest goal of increasing the value of production and raising income for farmers.
Meanwhile, enterprises such as Vietnam Rice Company Limited (Vinarice) have participated in the project from the beginning and are expanding their factories to meet export demand. According to Vinarice General Director Tran Truong Tan Tai, being supported to access capital with preferential interest rates is a great motivation to improve product quality and expand export markets.
Agribank's preferential credit program for this project is an important part of Vietnam's agricultural economic development strategy, promising to create breakthroughs in the rice production industry in the Mekong Delta, towards sustainable and effective development.
