Bui Thi Ngoc Hieu, its deputy director, said implementation of the decree,which involves a 2% interest subsidy, would keep businesses hit by the COVID-19crisis afloat.
The tourism industry, which accounts for more than 10% of the city’s economy,desperately want the subsidised loans to recover, she told a conference on August18.
But their access is blocked due to their non-performing loans or failure tomeet requirements, she said.
Travel firms have no assets to mortgage for the loan, she said.
The conference was organised by the department and the State Bank of Vietnam tolink travel firms with banks and resolve the issues that are preventing theformer from borrowing, she said.
Flexible policies are needed to make it easier for businesses to get thelow-interest loans, she added.
Nguyen Duc Lenh, deputy director of the central bank’s HCM City branch, saidthe banking industry would have more support packages for businesses in thesecond half of this year and coming years.
The State Bank would work closely with the tourism department to removeobstacles faced by travel businesses and support their recovery and growth inline with the city’s socio-economic recovery and development programme, Lenhsaid.
At the conference, eight banks and travel businesses signed agreements forloans.
In the first seven months of this year the city received 13.3 million domesticand more than 765,000 foreign visitors.
Tourism revenues were worth 60.3 trillion VND (2.59 billion USD), up 57.8% year-on-year./.