The signatories included the State Bank of Viet Nam Governor, Nguyen Van Binh, and ADB Country Director for Viet Nam, Tomoyuki Kimura.

Kimura said Viet Nam should ad dress the need for more responsive, inclusive microfinance services to narrow the development gaps and improve the poor’s access to opportunities and social services.

In response to the Government’s commitment to developing a market-oriented microfinance sector, ADB has approved the first microfinance development programme with technical assistance grant for Viet Nam as a continuous support to a sustainable sector development. The programme is a pipeline project in the latest ADB’s Country Partnership Strategy with the Government of Viet Nam.

The Microfinance Development Programme will seek to integrate microfinance into the formal financial sector by nurturing emerging microfinance institutions to become formal financial institutions licensed by the State Bank of Viet Nam, and at the same time, encouraging reform and restructuring of microfinance-involved state financial institutions – the Viet Nam Bank for Social Polices and the Central People’s Credit Fund.

It also helps enhance operational and supervisory capacities of microfinance, and supports the development of financial infrastructure including a training institute, advocacy programmes, and a consumer protection scheme, as well as a credit information exchange system.