New Head of Central Economic Commission and the principle of "not liking to owe anyone"
The Central Economic Committee has just officially had a new Head, former Governor of the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) Nguyen Van Binh. He is considered by many to be a man of action, decisive and a man of his word.
There are many stories about Mr. Binh, especially during his time as Governor of the State Bank. It can be said that this was a time when the banking system as well as monetary policy had many positive changes. But among them, there is a perspective that few people fully see: That is the policy of participating in supporting the restructuring of the agricultural sector.
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| Mr. Nguyen Van Binh was assigned by the Politburo to hold the position of Head of the Central Economic Commission this morning. |
Term of action
Mr. Binh's term as Governor of the State Bank of Vietnam is considered a term of action and the restructuring of the banking system is being accelerated more than ever. He sat in the "hot seat" at a time when the banking system was in a red alert state, bad debt increased to 17%, liquidity crisis, banks were in a "meal-and-drink" state, and interest rates were sky-high.
However, with many synchronous solutions proposed such as implementing a series of mergers and acquisitions of weak banks and even acquiring 3 banks at zero price, the banking system has been purified and put into stable operation.
Everyone understands that behind every bank there is always a story of group interests, backyard lending, cross-ownership and tricks of virtual charter capital and virtual interest. His drastic actions in restructuring the banking system such as merging, consolidating and acquiring some weak banks for 0 VND, issuing circulars and documents to rectify the operations of the banking system such as Circulars 09, 02, 36... have encountered many barriers and objections from interest groups.
Bank interest rates have fallen from sky-high levels of over 20% per year to 7-9% per year for short-term loans and 9-11% per year for long-term loans. The banking system has stabilized and become abundant from a liquidity crunch under Mr. Binh’s tenure.
Bad debt handling was also highly appreciated during Governor Binh's term. Bad debt ratio dropped from 17.2% in September 2012 to below 2.5% by the end of 2015.
Exchange rate is also a hot issue, consuming a lot of ink in recent times. This is also the success of Governor Binh during his term.
The farmer cares
Perhaps Mr. Binh's most noteworthy story, but not mentioned by many people, is the shift of credit flow to the agricultural production sector.
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| Mr. Nguyen Van Binh on his last working trip as Governor of the State Bank of Vietnam to An Giang in March 2016. |
In a conversation with the press, Mr. Binh explained that the banking system’s “encroachment” into the agricultural sector was completely in line with his request. That was a request for both the banking industry and the State Bank.
He explained that a large part of the banking industry’s customers, both depositors and lenders, are in the agricultural and rural areas. “Therefore, banks must enhance their role and participate more deeply in this area. This is also their job, to strengthen their operating foundation.”
During his five years as Governor, Mr. Binh has visited almost every province and city in the country. A main and familiar theme of the trips, emphasized in most of the speeches of the head of the State Bank, is the restructuring of agricultural production.
During his last working trip as Governor to An Giang at the end of March, Mr. Binh used the word “term”. “In the last term (2011-2015), we set a strong goal of restructuring agricultural production and that is an inevitable trend”, Mr. Binh emphasized.
It was a term in which the participation of the State Bank, specifically and directly by Governor Binh, in building a mechanism to support restructuring and developing agricultural production was quite prominent.
Also during this working trip, Mr. Binh shared that since this is the last time he comes to An Giang as Governor, he will take note of the difficulties in implementing the pangasius lending linkage model and in the coming time, he will summarize, review and comprehensively evaluate the results of implementing this program to thereby perfect the policy mechanism into a state policy, continue to institutionalize it into legal documents to create a legal basis for businesses, farmers and banks to confidently implement.
"I don't like to owe anyone anything. If I promise, I have to keep it," Mr. Binh affirmed.
Now, as Head of the Central Economic Committee, Mr. Binh has more conditions to build and perfect policies that benefit farmers.
As Mr. Binh emphasized when taking on his new responsibility: "My mission when I come to the Central Economic Committee is to turn big macro policies into specific, detailed issues, so that people can understand better and benefit more."
On April 11, on behalf of the Politburo, Mr. Dinh The Huynh - Politburo member, Standing member of the Secretariat congratulated Mr. Nguyen Van Binh, Politburo member, on assuming the position of Head of the Central Economic Commission. Mr. Dinh The Huynh believes that with the trust of the Central Executive Committee and the Politburo and his extensive working experience, Mr. Nguyen Van Binh will continue to promote his capacity, strengths, dynamism and creativity to join the members of the Government, as well as the collective of cadres, party members and civil servants of the Central Economic Commission to successfully complete the very heavy but very important and glorious tasks assigned by the Party, State and people, contributing to the successful implementation of the Resolution of the 12th National Party Congress. Speaking at the ceremony, the new Head of the Central Economic Commission Nguyen Van Binh expressed his gratitude to the Politburo and the Secretariat for trusting him to take on the new position. Mr. Binh emphasized: “In my new position as Head of the Central Economic Commission, I hope that the Party, the agencies of the Party, the State, the agencies of the State and all comrades… will continue to direct, help, support and cooperate closely so that the Central Economic Commission and I personally can successfully complete the tasks in my new position.” |
Mr. Nguyen Van Binh, Politburo member, Head of the Central Economic Commission Date of birth: 04.3.1961 Hometown: Au Co Ward, Phu Tho Town, Phu Tho Province Ethnicity: Kinh Position: Member of the 12th Politburo Member of the Central Executive Committee of the Party, 11th and 12th terms Governor of the State Bank of Vietnam Summary of work process 12.1986 – 1.1992: Specialist, Foreign Economic Department, State Bank of Vietnam. 2.1992 – 4.1995: Deputy Head of International Organizations Department; then Head of World Bank Department, International Cooperation Department, State Bank. 5.1995 – 10.1998: Deputy Director, Head of International Credit Project Management Board; then Director, Chief of Office of the State Bank. 11.1998 – 10.2001: Deputy Director of State Bank, Hanoi Branch. 11.2001 – 6.2005: Vice Chairman, then Acting Chairman of the Board of Directors of the International Investment Bank (MIB) in the Russian Federation. 7.2005 – 3.2008: Chief Inspector of the State Bank. 4.2008: Member of the Party Executive Committee, Deputy Governor of the State Bank. 01.2011: At the 11th National Congress of the Party, he was elected to the Central Executive Committee. 7.2011: At the first session of the 13th National Assembly, approved by the National Assembly. |
According to Dan Viet
