Banks look to industrial zones

As developers of and tenants in industrial and export processing zones are in a dire need of capital and banking services, commercial banks have been gearing up to grasp these opportunities.
The number of bank branches and transaction offices in HCM City’s industrial and export processing zones stands the pace, rising from three in 2000 to 52 at the moment, said Vu Huy Toan, deputy director of the central bank’s HCM City Branch.
Outstanding loans for both developers of and tenants in these zones grew strongly over the past five years, from 946 billion dong in 2000 to 16.6 trillion dong by the end of last year.
Last year alone, banks made loans of 28.5 trillion dong for the customers of this kind, Toan said at a meeting jointly organised by his branch and the HCM City Export Processing & Industrial Zones Authority (Hepza) on February 24.
He added that bad debts accounted for a mere 0.03% of the total outstanding loans.
Besides, automated teller machines are springing up in these zones. Five years ago, there was no ATM there but the number of ATMs has now reached 40.
Potential remains huge, Toan said. “Banks should gear up for that.”
Toan urged banks to pay attention to three newly established industrial parks Cat Lai, Phong Phu and Tan Phu Trung.
The city’s total 11 industrial and three processing zones now house 1,031 projects, of which 807 have already come into operation.

 

Category: Finance