No loans for craft villages until environment protected

Commercial banks that are part of the project to provide financing in rural areas boast of the significant amount of capital available for loans. Craft villages, however, cannot access these funds because they are not cooperating to produce enough goods and they pollute the environment.

In 2010, Viet A Bank decided to reserve 100 billion dong to lend to rural areas. With capital sourced from the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), the bank plans to provide medium and long-term loans with preferential interest rates. They will also offer a credit package of three billion dong under a project for rural areas, 500 billion dong of which will be used to develop craft villages and tourism in the Mekong Delta.

Other commercial banks have also joined the project to finance rural areas or bring preferential capital sources to the Mekong Delta.

Bui Thi Hong Ha, Deputy Director of An Giang province Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism, explained said that demand for craft village goods is very high, but the villages cannot provide these items in bulk.

Ha detailed how tourists from France heard that My A satin made by Tan Chau village was very beautiful. They traveled to An Giang to purchase the satin, but it was unavailable.

When Ha told a client that dried loc (a freshwater fish) is a very delicious specialty of HCM City, they wanted to buy an entire container. The craft village representative replied that it would take two years to make enough.

According to Ha, craft villages do not cooperate with each other to produce volumes large enough to supply the market. The households complain that they cannot borrow money from banks. The bankers respond that these people cannot meet the terms to borrow capital without mortgaging assets.

Additionally, banks will only provide loans when households in craft villages promise not to pollute the environment. Most villages have paid little attention to environmental protection.

At a craft village specializing in rice flour in Dong Thap province, a project to improve the environment was put forward in 2005, but no progress has been made. In Sa Dec, the town still has no solution to treat its waste.

Thai Hoang An, Deputy Director of the Can Tho branch of Viet A Bank, remarked that a good production environment is one condition that a bank considers to provide preferential loans. If the requirement is tightened, very few households will be eligible for loans.

Tags: Vietnam Handicraft