On 6/6/2014 in Yagoon City, the Republic of the Union of Myanmar, Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam JSC (BIDV) signed the cooperation agreement with the Small and Medium Industrial Development Bank of Myanmar (SMIDB). The agreement is to realize the goal of building the comprehensive and effective cooperation relationship between SMIDB and BIDV for sharing information, developing products, technical services, together supporting Myanmar enterprises and supporting the investment and commercial cooperation of the enterprises of the two countries Vietnam - Myanmar.

Attending and witnessing the signing ceremony, for Myanmar’s side, including Mr. U Maung Myint - Minister of Industry and Chairman of SMIDB, representative of the Central Bank of Myanmar. For Vietnam’s side, including the Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Do Thang Hai, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Vietnam in Myanmar Pham Thanh Dung, Chairman of BIDV  Board of Directors - President of Association of Vietnamese Investors in Myanmar (AVIM) Tran Bac Ha, representatives of BIDV executive board. According to the signed agreement, BIDV and SMIDB agreed to cooperate in some fields such as:

Cooperation in exchanging and providing information: Experiences in banking market, operations, policies, commercial banking regulations in Vietnam and Myanmar; refer to the product systems, operation procedures; regularly hold the meeting programs for exchange and exchanging experiences in modern banking administration and operation.

Cooperation in developing products, services: Study the cooperation capacity for providing the Financial - Banking products, services to serve the projects, investment and commercial cooperation of the enterprises of the two countries, small and medium-sized enterprises of Myanmar.

Cooperation in the field of money, foreign exchange: Promote cooperation in developing the banking products and services in the money and exchange transactions, commercial financing and other financial services.

In addition, the two sides will regularly exchange to seek cooperation opportunities in other fields and continue to sign the specific agreements.

Also according to this cooperation agreement, with its experience and capacity, BIDV will support SMIDB in some fields with strong position of BIDV such as:

Supporting information technology application for SMIDB: Survey, evaluate, improve the quality of information technology systems, support training and exchange system solutions for Core-banking and IT applications in commercial bank management and business.

Supporting operation consultancy: BIDV will send the cadres to exchange experiences, provide consultancy on operation products, bank risk management, especially in the fields related to the credit work, safety margin management in banking, international payment, supporting small and medium sized enterprises..., etc.       

Supporting training programs and surveys in Vietnam: In the period 2014 - 2015, BIDV supports SMIDB in organizing to send a working delegation to survey the banking operations in Vietnam.

Speaking at the signing ceremony, Chairman of BIDV Board of Directors Tran Bac Ha affirmed: With experience and strength in the lending and servicing small and medium-sized enterprises in Vietnam, BIDV desires to share these experiences to support Myanmar financial and banking markets as well as promote the development of small and medium-sized enterprises of Myanmar. This cooperation agreement demonstrates the efforts of BIDV in supporting the economic reform process of Myanmar, establishing the strong and firm ties with the financial institutions of Myanmar and coming to the implementation of banking business operations of BIDV in Myanmar in the coming time.

Speaking at the signing ceremony, Mr. U Maung Myint - Minister of Industry and Chairman of SMIDB acclaimed the efforts of BIDV in joining the financial and banking market of Myanmar. Especially with the signed cooperation agreement between BIDV and SMIDB, once again affirmed the role of BIDV in contribution to promoting the economic cooperation relationship between the two countries.

To congratulate the success for the cooperation relationship between the two banks, the Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade of Vietnam Do Thang Hai said: With its role, the Ministry of Industry and Trade of Vietnam will continue to coordinate with the Ministry of Industry and Trade of Myanmar in searching for specific solutions to create favorable conditions for Vietnamese enterprises to invest in Myanmar, including the support for banking activities in general and of BIDV in particular during the cooperation and investment in Myanmar.

Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Vietnam in Myanmar Pham Thanh Dung also proposed the Government of Myanmar to continue creating favorable conditions for BIDV to implement the cooperation with bank partner of Myanmar, including the support to Vietnam for establishing the branch of BIDV in Myanmar as soon as possible. The Vietnamese Embassy in Myanmar affirmed confirmed to have the interest and support to ensure that BIDV implements the operation successfully in Myanmar.

In April 2010, implementing the Joint declaration of the Prime Ministers of the two countries on promoting Vietnam – Myanmar economic cooperation relationship, BIDV established the Representative Office in Yangon, laid the first foundation in joining the financial market of Myanmar and directly performed the tasks assigned by the Prime Minister of Vietnam as President of Association of Vietnamese Investors in Myanmar (AVIM). BIDV quickly connected with the financial institutions in Myanmar to establish the partnership, payment channel, correspondent bank with some Commercial Banks, connection head for organizing over 150 Working delegations with more than 2,000 turns of Vietnamese entrepreneurs coming to survey, explore investment opportunities and work with the appropriate authorities of Myanmar to ask permission for carrying out the investment. The efforts of BIDV have contributed an important part to promoting the economic cooperation relationship between the two countries in the period 2010 to now, made Vietnam to rank eighth among the countries invested in Myanmar with a total value of FDI over 600 million USD in 7 projects.

The Small and Medium Industrial Development Bank (SMIDB) is a public bank established in 1996 under the sponsor of the Ministry of Industry of Myanmar. Its main activity is to support finance to the small and medium-sized enterprises – one of the most potential customer segments in Myanmar and thereby supporting the industrial development policy of the Government of Myanmar.

With experience in successfully implementing the operations overseas, especially in Laos and Cambodia, BIDV believes that it will continue to implement well the banking operations in Myanmar market, contribute to promoting the economic cooperation relationship between the two countries in the future, complete well the role and mission as AVIM President entrusted by the Governments of the two countries.

For more information, please contact:

Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam JSC

Tel: 04. 22205826; Fax: 04. 22225316