Bank offers soft loans to businesses to pay COVID-19-impacted workers
Bank offers soft loans to businesses to pay COVID-19-impacted workers
The Viet Nam Bank for Social Policies (VBSP) has allocated VND31.6 billion (US$1.36 million) to 207 enterprises to pay the wages of 8,529 labourers who lost their jobs due to impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. 
According to the bank, it has extended payment dates and adjusted the lending terms for 242,700 existing customers, while giving more loans to 122,900 others with total capital of more than VND3.11 trillion.
At the same time, it has provided loans for nearly 2 million new customers with a total capital of more than VND71.58 trillion.
In 2020, amid the complex developments of the COVID-19 pandemic, the bank offered support to businesses and people.
The VBSP worked with other agencies to build and submit resolutions and decisions to the Government and Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc on the implementation of support policies to those who face difficulties due to COVID-19. The documents have served as important foundations for lending to employers with loans to pay wages for affected labourers.
Eligible employers are those whose employees are joining compulsory social insurance and had to stop working for at least one month continuously between April to the end of December 2020, while suffering from a 20 per cent year-on-year drop in their revenue in the first quarter of 2020, and with no bad debts.
They will get loans with a value equivalent to a half of the total wages they have to pay to their employees based on the minimum regional wage, with a zero per cent interest rate for 12 months.
The capital of the scheme will be disbursed until January 31, 2021, according to the bank.
