Hanoi, November 09, 2005 — The Swiss Secretariat for Economic Affairs (seco) pledged US$694,000 today (VND 11 billion) to finance three years of training for Vietnam’s commercial banks. This will be provided by the Bank Training Center of Vietnam (BTC), in conjunction with the International Finance Corporation’s Mekong Private Sector Development Facility. IFC-MPDF helped establish BTC in conjunction with a consortium of joint stock banks, and provides it with on-going technical assistance.
In his speech today, Switzerland’s Ambassador H.E. Benedict de Cerjat stressed the urgent need for training to help Vietnam’s commercial banks cope with rapid growth: “WTO accession will provide a major boost to the private sector, as many state-owned enterprises will have to be equitized. The capital markets are also expected to expand considerably over the next few years. Both these factors will not only challenge the banking system in terms of making more financial resources available to the private sector and financing Vietnam’s rapid growth, but also in terms of introducing new instruments and operations. This, coupled with the rapid expansion of the banking system (annual growth rates of 30-40% are the norm), is stretching the human and operational capacity of the banks. Through our renewed support to the Bank Training Center for the next three years, Switzerland therefore aims at upgrading bankers’ skills in order to meet the ongoing and upcoming challenges of a rapidly growing market.”
Mr. Nguyen Duc Vinh, the Chairman of BTC, which is Vietnam’s leading provider of bank training, thanked seco for its generous funding and IFC-MPDF for the ongoing technical support it provides to BTC. “In just four years with IFC-MPDF’s help, BTC has established itself and trained more than 7000 bank employees. With this additional funding, we will be able to train many more. We will also use it to develop new courses, train a network of associate trainers who are experienced bankers but need training as trainers, provide consultancy services, and introduce professional certification programs for various banking areas. In 2006, we plan to launch our first program for credit /loan officers.”
Mr. Adam Sack, General Manager of IFC-MPDF, used the ceremony to announce the excellent results of an independent evaluation of BTC which IFC-MPDF commissioned earlier this year. “Ninety-six percent of BTC’s trainees said they had effectively applied the skills they learned in BTC courses back on the job. The evaluation also found a strong positive correlation between BTC training and banks’ profitability and growth. These very good results demonstrate the effectiveness of BTC’s courses.”
BTC was established in 2001 by a consortium of nine joint stock banks, with assistance of IFC-MPDF. At the time there was no established provider of bank training for Vietnam’s fledgling commercial banking industry. “Donors provided training from time to time”, said Mr. Sack, “but this was sporadic, uncoordinated and often unsuited to local needs. Four years ago IFC-MPDF and our partners in the banking community shared a vision to transform Vietnam’s fledgling commercial banks into efficient and profitable providers of financial services to small businesses across Vietnam. Our goal for BTC was to provide international best practice training, but tailored to local needs, and at prices Vietnamese banks could afford. As the good results of BTC’s recent evaluation shows, it is clearly meeting these objectives.”
