Changes are not commensurate
Speaking at the Conference on Supporting Typical Cooperatives to Improve Loan Ac access capacity, connect trade and transform digitally organized by the Vietnam Cooperative Alliance on April 12, Mr. Pham Cong Bang - General Director of the Vietnam Cooperative Development Support Fund said that although the collective economic sector has made progress in both quantity and quality, it is still not commensurate with its potential. Part of the reason is that the cooperative's internal capacity is still limited, lacking capital, slow digital transformation, monotonous trade promotion activities and has not adapted well to market requirements.
Many cooperatives have applied high technology, promoted digital transformation, participated in the supply chain and value chain. At the same time, the collective economic sector also strengthens linkages with other economic sectors, expands credit, connects trade and coordinates with ministries and branches to promote exports, improve production capacity and competitiveness.
However, Mr. Pham Cong Bang said that the digital transformation and innovation process is still slow because many cooperatives are small-scale, lack capital, outdated technology, weak management capacity and do not have a proper marketing strategy.
Loan incentives
To remove difficulties, the Fund has supported hundreds of cooperatives to access capital, contributing to promoting new establishments and improving operational efficiency. Currently, 16 CoopStar Awards 2025 partners are borrowing capital from the Fund with a total of 31 loans. However, there are more than 80 other typical cooperatives that have not yet accessed capital. The reason is that the previous lending regulations were still limited, focusing only on cooperatives and cooperative unions, while many units still lacked information and had difficulty accessing credit policies.
From that practice, the Fund is committed to researching and developing its own credit product, improving the lending process in the direction of reducing procedures, shortening appraisal and approval time, helping cooperatives - especially typical cooperatives - easily access capital.
Mr. Bui Ngoc Toan - Head of Credit Department, Vietnam Cooperative Development Support Fund - said that the Fund is implementing many loan packages with preferential interest rates: short term from 4%/year for priority sectors and 4.6%/year for other sectors; medium term is 4.7%/year and 5.2%/year respectively; long term is also at the corresponding level. Interest rates are kept fixed throughout the term for short- and medium-term loans; long-term loans are fixed for the first 5 years.
The same goal of supporting cooperatives, Agriculture and Rural Development Bank (Agribank) currently has outstanding loans to this area reaching 1,916 billion to the end of the first quarter I.2025, up 2.6% compared to the end of 2024. In which, agriculture - forestry - fishery accounts for 433.6 billion VND; Processing - manufacturing 341.8 billion; Construction of 222.7 billion dong. The ratio of outstanding loans of the cooperative accounts for about 0.11 - 0.12% of the total outstanding loans of the whole system, with stable credit quality.
Despite priority, the cooperative still faces many difficulties in accessing capital due to lack of headquarters, guaranteed assets, and limited management and production capacity.
