Small and medium-sized enterprises face "double" difficulties
Sharing at the Workshop "Improving the efficiency of green credit capital flows, a driving force for economic growth", Dr. Bui Thanh Minh - Deputy Professional Director of the Office of the Private Economic Development Research Board, Board IV - acknowledged that to access green capital, businesses must meet the green standards set by credit institutions. This means that businesses need to standardize production processes, build data systems, and improve management models...
This requires businesses to have capital to start accessing green standards, from which, they can access green capital flows. Meaning we are talking about a double difficult story" - Mr. Minh stated clearly.
According to Mr. Minh, green transformation cannot be promoted by a single policy but requires a synchronous policy ecosystem. Including industrial policy, green fiscal policy, emission reduction policy, carbon credit market and many other support mechanisms. Only when these policies are designed and operated uniformly can conditions be created for businesses to successfully transform.
Looking at the growth rate of green credit, Mr. Minh assessed that this is a fairly rapidly developing sector. From having very few credit institutions implementing it, to now there are about 82 credit institutions generating green credit balance, with an average growth rate of about 20% per year. However, the scale of green credit currently accounts for only about 4.2-4.5% of the total outstanding debt of the entire economy.
Notably, this capital flow is currently mainly concentrated in agricultural and renewable energy projects, of which about 40% is for renewable energy and about 30% for green agriculture. This shows that green credit still mainly flows into large enterprises or projects with clear models, while the small and medium-sized enterprise sector still faces many difficulties in accessing capital.
Mr. Minh gave an example of some marine farming enterprises in Quang Ninh with green production models and good development potential. However, when working with banks, the biggest barrier is still the requirement for collateral. Atshore assets, sea space use rights or exploitation licenses are not yet eligible to be accepted as collateral. In addition, marine farming activities also pose many risks due to natural disasters and storms, making credit institutions cautious when considering lending.
Lack of green standards and ESG data
From a banking perspective, Agribank determines that it not only provides capital but also plays a leading and spreading role in green transformation, especially in the field of agriculture and rural areas.
Mr. Nguyen Quang Ngoc - Deputy Head of Credit Policy Department of Agribank - informed that by the end of 2025, Agribank is the leading bank in the system in terms of the number of customers granted green credit with nearly 39,000 customers. Total green credit balance reached nearly 28,000 billion VND, focusing on renewable energy and clean energy (53%), sustainable forestry (27%) and green agriculture (20%). In 2026, the bank will continue to promote green credit programs.
However, the implementation of green credit still faces many challenges. From the perspective of mechanisms and policies, representatives of Agribank said that there is currently no national green economic sector system and the list of green projects is standardized and publicized on the Electronic Information Portal to serve as a basis for collecting data and evaluating projects according to ESG standards.
From the business side, most customers still lack environmental records, limited ESG reporting capacity, small-scale production and lack of collateral. Meanwhile, banks also face difficulties in human resources with expertise in the environmental - social field, and at the same time face pressure to balance capital sources when green projects often require long loan terms and low interest rates.
Not stopping at the increasing debt balance figures, green credit is only truly meaningful when it becomes a capital flow that helps hundreds of thousands of small businesses upgrade technology, reduce costs, meet new standards and participate more deeply in sustainable value chains.
