Agribank Nghe An: A key investor in the development of agriculture, rural areas, and farmers.

(Baonghean) - Operating in the province with the largest land area in the country, with a population of over 3.5 million people, Agribank Nghe An consistently affirms its leading role as a state-owned commercial bank in fulfilling political tasks, implementing policy credit programs, ensuring social security, and conducting business effectively in an increasingly competitive environment. Agribank Nghe An is proud to hold a leading position in the rural financial market, a loyal partner of agriculture, rural areas, and farmers in the province.

The main focus of investment in the development of "agriculture, farmers, and rural areas" (agriculture, farmers, and rural areas)

Agribank Nghe An currently has over 1,000 employees and 69 transaction points across 21 districts, towns, and cities. Understanding the capital needs of local people and businesses for economic development and wealth creation in their homeland, and based on Agribank's overall development orientation, Agribank Nghe An prioritizes investment in its traditional and specialized areas of expertise, namely agriculture and rural areas, as well as other priority investment areas in accordance with the policies of the Party, Government, and State Bank of Vietnam.

Agribank Nghe An Headquarters.

As of May 31, 2017, Agribank Nghe An continued to be among the leading commercial banks in the area with total capital exceeding VND 22,170 billion and total outstanding loans to the economy reaching VND 19,307 billion (serving over 150,000 customers who borrowed capital at Agribank Nghe An's branches and transaction points). Of this, savings deposits from individual customers accounted for 93%, and loans to the agricultural and rural sectors accounted for over 88% of the total outstanding loans. The branch's product and service development activities also achieved positive results, with service revenue of VND 44.5 billion contributing to Agribank's overall high non-credit revenue rate, promptly meeting the diverse needs of customers and partners in payment transactions. This is an encouraging result for Agribank Nghe An, especially in the context of credit activities in the area that have been and continue to face pressure from fierce competition.

Implement policy credit effectively.

Demonstrating its political role and responsibilities as a state-owned commercial bank, Agribank Nghe An has always been at the forefront of channeling capital to all sectors of the provincial economy, especially agriculture and rural areas. It has taken the lead in implementing Government Decree 55/2015/ND-CP on credit policies for agricultural and rural development; Government Decree 67/2014/ND-CP on some policies for fisheries development, etc., with various solutions tailored to local realities. Branches that effectively implement credit policies and have high loan balances include those in Vinh City, Do Luong, Quynh Luu, Dien Chau, Yen Thanh, Hung Nguyen, Nam Dan, and Thanh Chuong.

Many customers who borrowed capital from Agribank branches in Nghe An have invested effectively. These include Mr. Ngo Van Ngoan, from Hamlet 10, Nghia Dong commune (Tan Ky district), who borrowed 2.6 billion VND and has had a long-standing borrowing relationship with Agribank Tan Ky for 15 years, investing in the development of a dairy farm. He was recently visited by the President on April 30, 2017; Ms. Pham Thi Dung, from Do Luong town, Do Luong district, who borrowed 1 billion VND and has had a long-standing borrowing relationship with Agribank Do Luong for years, investing in the food business; and Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Trung, from Tien Thanh village, Chi Khe commune (Con Cuong district), who borrowed 750 million VND to invest in building an irrigation system for growing clean vegetables and planting seedlings and fruit trees.

Agribank Nghe An presents Tet gifts to impoverished households.

In addition, the loan program under Government Decree 67/2014/ND-CP on some policies for fisheries development has a total outstanding loan balance of over 101 billion VND, including 13.9 billion VND in Dien Chau, 50.7 billion VND in Quynh Luu, and 37 billion VND in Hoang Mai town.

In the coming period, Agribank Nghe An is determined to continue increasing investment, ensuring sufficient capital for the production and business development needs of its customers, while simultaneously promoting investment in modern technology, further expanding its operational network, and developing modern distribution channels through ATMs, POS terminals, Mobile Banking, Internet Banking, etc., ready to promptly meet the service needs of all customer segments. Through this, Agribank Nghe An will not only be a leading commercial bank in investing in the development of agriculture, rural areas, and farmers, but also a pioneering credit institution in developing convenient products and services.

Alongside its successful business operations, Agribank Nghe An consistently demonstrates its social responsibility to the community by investing funds in social welfare and charitable activities in the area. Notably, the branch, as a commercial bank, has made significant contributions to the new rural development program with substantial investment. From 2010 to 2015, it invested over 19 billion VND in social and charitable work. In 2016 alone, it sponsored the construction of the Nghi Van Commune Health Station (Nghi Loc District) with 2.5 billion VND; the Phan Dang Luu Traditional Education House and Museum (Yen Thanh District) with 2 billion VND; the construction of a multi-functional school building at Nguyen Xuan On High School (Dien Chau District) with 5 billion VND; and provided scholarships to Nguyen Xuan On High School with 500 million VND. In 2017, we continued to coordinate with the Provincial Fatherland Front Committee to implement the policy of supporting each district, town, and city with 1-2 charitable houses, with a total estimated cost of over 1 billion VND across Nghe An province.

In 2017, Agribank Nghe An strived to achieve a capital increase of 16-18%; the ratio of individual deposits to total capital should be at least 90%. Loan outstanding balances were targeted to increase by 15-17% (of which, medium and long-term loans accounted for 48% of total outstanding loans; and loans to agriculture and rural areas accounted for 80% of total outstanding loans).

To achieve its set goals, Agribank Nghe An continues to adhere to the socio-economic development direction and tasks of the locality in each period, taking into account market developments, proactively proposing appropriate solutions in its business operations, and striving to achieve the highest possible results according to the set targets. It actively seeks and selects eligible customers to expand lending. It continues to coordinate with the Farmers' Association and the Women's Union to promote lending through groups. It focuses on exploiting small-scale individual and household businesses to increase credit investment in the agricultural and rural sectors.

Promote lending under Government Decree 55. Actively seek eligible corporate clients to expand lending, continue implementing lending under Government Decree 67, lending under Decision 68, etc. Strive to provide loans that effectively support production and business, ensuring sufficient capital for seasonal production, livestock farming, processing, and loans for daily life as regulated by the superior bank. Strengthen measures to improve credit quality, conduct thorough pre-lending, during-lending, and post-lending inspections, and prioritize the economic efficiency of projects during appraisal.

Closely monitor customers, urge timely debt collection, limit the 발생 of bad debts, ensure the bad debt ratio remains below the permissible level, and strictly control debt restructuring. Promote the comprehensive development of products and services, paying particular attention to specific guidance for products and services that have been developing slowly in the past. Organize well the work of domestic and international payments, remittance payments, money transfer services, foreign exchange trading, ABIC insurance, card products, electricity and water bill collection services, securities trading points, etc.

Nguyen Thanh Toan

(Agribank Nghe An)