Hanoi, Vietnam, May 25, 2010—
IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, and Techcombank today signed an agreement to help the bank develop its energy efficiency lending facility for local small and medium enterprises.
Under the agreement, IFC is providing $24 million from its own account and $1 million mobilized from the Earth Fund. Techcombank is committing another $25 million to build a total portfolio of $50 million over the next two years. Techcombank plans to provide long-term financing to support companies, especially small and medium enterprises, in efforts to replace equipment and upgrade technology and systems for greater efficiency, increased productivity, cost saving, and emission reduction.
“This is the right and timely move to help Techcombank’s customers become more competitive while coping with energy price volatility and the challenging mismatch of energy demand and supply,” said Nguyen Duc Vinh, Techcombank’s CEO. “Energy efficiency financing is a new business area for local commercial banks in Vietnam, and IFC’s global experience will help us establish a right business model.”
IFC’s investment is in line with the government’s national program on energy conservation, which sets targets of achieving annual energy saving equal to 5 percent to 8 percent of total national energy consumption over the 2010-2015 period. This lending facility also will be open for cleaner production investments that help reduce wastes and resource consumption such as water and material inputs.
“Expanding availability of long-term finance and designing specialized lending products for energy efficiency investments will help accelerate the modernization process in enterprises and move the country economy towards a low-carbon growth path,” said Simon Andrews, IFC Regional Manager for Vietnam, Cambodia, Lao PDR, and Thailand. “This is our first collaboration to open up the energy efficiency financing market in Vietnam.”
In addition to the loans, IFC also provides advisory services to Techcombank in product development, marketing, staff training, pipeline development, and partnership building with a network of technical service providers. IFC has been a partner of Techcombank since 2003, providing both investment and advisory services.
About IFC
IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, creates opportunity for people to escape poverty and improve their lives. We foster sustainable economic growth in developing countries by supporting private sector development, mobilizing capital for private enterprise, and providing advisory and risk mitigation services to businesses and governments. Our new investments totaled $14.5 billion in fiscal 2009, helping channel capital into developing countries during the financial crisis. For more information, visit
www.ifc.org
.
About Techcombank
Techcombank, also referred to as VIETNAM Technological & Commercial Bank, was established in 1993 and is one of the largest commercial joint-stock banks in Vietnam with presences in over 40 cities and provinces nationwide. Techcombank is the first and only Vietnamese bank to be complimented by Financial Insights for achievements in leading technological applications and solutions.
HSBC is a major shareholder owning 20% of the firm. As of December 2009 the total assets of Techcombank reached the number of 93.14trillion VND (approximately of 4.9 billion USD). Techcombank is one of the leading, growing commercial banks in Vietnam to embrace technological innovation for the success of its business. For more information, visit
www.techcombank.com.vn
.
