Vietnam proposed the theme “Financing for sustainable agricultural and rural development” for APEC’s inclusive finance cooperation in 2017. Under this theme, APEC economies and international organizations discussed ways to develop a more sustainable and inclusive finance mechanism to narrow development gaps between regional economies.

Financing for agricultural and rural development is of great importance to Vietnam. Many Vietnamese people don’t have access to official financial services. Using financial services here is less common than in other countries in the Asia-Pacific region. But the situation has have been improving recently. According to the World Bank, more than 20% of poor Vietnamese people have bank accounts and the percentage of people with saving books has increased to 30%. Nguyen Thi Hong is Deputy Governor of the State Bank of Vietnam: “The National Strategy on Inclusive Finance needs to emphasize the central role of customers. Our target customers should be poor people, people in remote areas, women, and small and medium sized enterprises. Stakeholders from the government and private sectors need to participate in implementing inclusive finance to make it effective.”

Vietnam has implemented a number of policies and activities within the framework of inclusive finance including developing micro-finance and cashless payment, and improving bank and financial service access for vulnerable groups and women. These policies have created opportunities for livelihood, investment capital rotation, and social saving to promote agricultural growth.