France Grants EUR1M to Help Vietnam Develop Microfinance

The French Development Agency (AFD) will provide a non-refundable aid of EUR1 million to a technical support project to help Vietnam develop a sustainable microfinance sector, the Dau Tu newspaper reported. An agreement to this effect was signed between AFD and the State Bank of Vietnam, the country’s central bank, on December 13, the newspaper said.  Through the project, AFD will contribute to supporting the Vietnamese government’s efforts to define and implement reforms dedicated to structuring the microfinance sector in the country. The project will enable the conduction of an analysis of the legal and regulatory environment of microfinance in Vietnam, and will provide capacity building to the SBV to regulate and supervise the sector such as trainings to SBV executives and to concerned parties in the microfinance industry. Early this month, the AFD signed with the Ministry of Finance a credit agreement in the second phase for “support program to respond to climate change” with the reception of EUR20 million loan. Until now, with this new financing agreement, the total accumulated net commitments of the AFD for public official development assistance (ODA) in Vietnam will amount to about EUR1.070 billion. (Dau Tu – Investment Dec 13, Lao Dong – Labor Dec 13)