HANOI, April 4 (Xinhua) -- Vietnam should establish a commercial border trust fund (CBTF) with support from donors and technical assistance to provide preferential trust loans and training for commercial banks in lending loans to small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs).

That was one among 13 recommendations made by experts at a seminar held here on Wednesday by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and Vietnamese Ministry of Industry and Trade (MIT), which are applied to the project to enhance border trade services and rules for SMEs operating in border trade (coded ADB RETA 7380).

According to experts, the fund will provide favorable conditions to SMEs involved in the Vietnam-China border trade activities by lending them preferential loans. Besides, a CBTF program should also be set up to allow commercial banks and credit organizations to expand their lending to small and micro businesses, including human resource training for the banks, financial institutions and enterprises.

Information centers should be open to update information about financial services and businesses, which would improve the quality of their operations, they said.

Addressing the conference, head of MIT's Mountainous Region's Trade Department, Hoang Minh Tuan said in recent years, the Vietnam-China border trade turnover increased averagely 26 percent per year, reaching more than 4.2 billion U.S. dollars in 2011.

However, the potentials for expanding border trade have not yet fully tapped due to inappropriate policies on developing the variety of products and business operation, as well as the lack of monetary and banking policies to expand the businessmen's operations, Tuan said, adding that human resource training for border trade enterprises and local infrastructure at the border areas are still in shortage.

Implementation of ADB RETA 7380 would help facilitating border trade activities, contributing to speeding the Vietnam-China border economic, trade and services activities and reducing poverty in both sides' mountainous and remote areas, said Tuan. 

April 4, 2012

Source: Xinhua