The Vietnam Women Entrepreneurs Council (VWEC) under the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) recently collaborated with the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to organize an online business - bank connection program to introduce and discuss a US$5 million package aimed to help mitigate impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The package is managed by ADB from the grant of the Women Entrepreneurs Financial Initiative (We-fi) Fund that supports women-owned small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

The program is an effort of VWEC to assist women-owned SMEs in accessing ADB's financial support package where five Vietnamese commercial banks are assigned by the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) to disburse this relief package, including the Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam (BIDV), Tien Phong Commercial Joint Stock Bank (TPBank), Asia Commercial Bank (ACB), Vietnam Prosperity Commercial Joint Stock Bank (VP Bank) and Saigon Hanoi Commercial Joint Stock Bank (SHB).

More than 300 delegates from women-owned SMEs from many provinces and cities across the country and banks attended the program. At the meeting, businesses directly discussed processes, procedures and conditions to get the loan. After the matching event, eligible businesses are connected to banks of their choice to be guided to apply for a loan or have their existing loans restructured.