Vietnam bank to aid Myanmar bank

YANGON, July 3 (Xinhua): The Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam (BIDV) will provide technical support and loan provision to Myanmar's Small and Medium Industrial Development Bank Limited (SMIDB), according to bank circle Thursday.

The recent agreement between SMIDB and BIDV covered cooperation to upgrade the IT system and make greater use of IT applications in the banking services of the Myanmar bank and provision of a US$30 million loan to SMIDV with a 4.0 per cent interest rate for five years.

According to the deal, capacity building and training on banking services will be conducted here, exchanging of IT technicians for technology transfer soon.

SMIDB that began its banking operations in 1996 is a public limited bank run under the supervision of the Ministry of Industry. It is the one and only bank lending to small and medium enterprises through its loan programme financed by the Myanmar Economic Bank.