The Roundtable Discussion was attended by Ms. Khuong Thanh Ha, Deputy Director General of the International Cooperation Department of the SBV; Mr. Donald Lambert, Principal Private Sector Development Specialist, the ADB’s Viet Nam Resident Mission; together with representatives of several relevant agencies, the SBV’s entities, international organizations, associations, commercial banks, and other experts.

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in general and women-owned SMEs in particular play an important role in creating jobs and generating income for workers, reducing poverty, promoting economic growth. However, these customers have been facing a lot of difficulties and challenges, including lack of financial access.

At the Roundtable Discussion, the participants also exchanged and discussed about potential policies to support women-owned SMEs to access credit resources from commercial banks; listened to an overview presentation on the ADB-supported project on “Promoting Transformative Gender Equality Agenda in Asia and the Pacific”, and the draft report of the ADB’s study on Access to Finance for Women-Owned SMEs, within the framework of the Women Accelerating Vibrant Enterprises in Southeast Asia and the Pacific (WAVES) program. The participants also discussed several key points and the relevant findings on financial accessibility of women-owned SMEs in Vietnam from the perspectives of both the supply and the demand sides; the challenges and policies to promote access to finance for women-owned SMEs; the implementation progress of the credit support programs for women-owned SMEs by the commercial banks; the international experience in enhancing financial access for women-owned SMEs; etc.

Speaking at the Discussion, Ms. Nguyen Thi Kim Phuong - Deputy Director of BIDV's Corporate Banking Department underlined that the comprehensive ecosystem of products and services integrated with modern features, multi-utilities and policies and attractive incentives for WSMEs have been BIDV's motivation for WSMEs so far.

In particular, BIDV has implemented preferential interest rate credit packages with a total scale of more than VND 500,000 billion to support SMEs, including WSMEs, to expand their business development. For WSMEs only, BIDV has implemented a Comprehensive Financial Program to mitigate the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, combined with a non-refundable aid of USD5 million from the Women Entrepreneurs Finance Initiative (We-Fi) and VND 3,000 billion of BIDV's capital. Accordingly, customers not only enjoy preferential interest rates, commitment fees for capital withdrawal, but also participate in free business consulting courses and training courses on cash flow management, human resource management, business development. new product or business area and information technology.

BIDV also implemented the "Digital transformation program with SMEs - SME Digitrans" to promote SMEs to accelerate the digital transformation process, apply modern technology in management and financial - accounting management, in which prioritize resources for comprehensive financial development for WSMEs. Continuing to affirm to be a reliable companion of WSMEs in particular and SMEs in general, BIDV is about to launch "BIDV SME EASY Digital Platform - Comprehensive solution for SMEs" providing synchronous financial solutions financial and non-financial with the goal of supporting the development of internal resources, increasing financial health and competitiveness for SMEs; Especially, this platform offers a specially designed interface for female entrepreneurs with the message: "Shining with women-owned SMEs".