Banking sector grows in the south
Banking sector grows in the south
The bank service sector is growing in the southern provinces of Laos with asset values increasing to more than 5.336 billion kip by the end of last year.
“The value is about a 41.5 percent increase from 2012,” said the Director General of the Bank of the Lao PDR's (BOL) Southern Regional Office, Mr Nah Chantalivong, at a meeting last Thursday in Champassak province.
By the end of last year the southern provinces bank branches attracted deposits of more than 3.064 billion kip which was about a 0.2 percent increase from the plan.
Deposit accounts were valued at around 3,329 billion kip by April, about an 8 percent increase from 2013.
“Meanwhile loans were about 4,049 billion kip by the same month, a 1.16 percent increase from last year, 2013,” Mr Nah said. He added that there are now 23 commercial bank branches in the region, three more than the previous year.
The 23 branches include 12 branches of the state commercials banks in the provinces of Champassak, Saravan, Xekong and Attapeu.
Two branches are joint venture banks in Champassak and Attapeu; and another two branches are a state bank, Nayoby Bank, which has the status of a non-profit legal entity under the management of the BOL, also in Champassak and Attapeu.
The other seven branches in Champassak are local and private commercial banks plus foreign banks.
Mr Nah said there were also 61 service units in the southern part of the country by the end of last year, 17 more than in 2012. There were 17 money exchange service units, including 13 in Champassak and four in Attapeu.
For Na yoby Bank services, its branch in Champassak has set a plan to issue loans worth almost 23 billion kip to five development sectors in Saravan this year. “The loan plan is much larger than the previous year, when we released only 9.9 billion kip in Saravan,” a Champassak branch official reported in February.
The five targets include about 11.31 billion kip for crop plantations, around 5.9 billion kip for livestock breeding, about 4.9 million kip for crop agent services, approximately 400 million kip for handicrafts and another 400 million kip for small industry.
Currently there are more than 30 banks in Laos, including representative banks from overseas.
vientiane times
