A residential area in Hà Nội. Firms, especially real estate ones, are awaiting the circular on restructuring the debt repayment term as they are facing many difficulties in production and business. VNA/VNS Photo

HÀ NỘI — The State Bank of Việt Nam (SBV) has worked with credit institutions to get their opinions on the draft circular on restructuring the debt repayment term and keeping the debt groups unchanged to support borrowers who have difficulties in production and business activities.

The business community is awaiting the circular as they are facing many difficulties in production and business.

Under the draft circular, to be qualified for restructuring, enterprises must prove they can’t repay their principal and interest on time not because of their weak production and business, but because of objective reasons of the economy and the market; and they are able to repay the debts in full according to the new restructured term.

Earlier, the HCM City Real Estate Association (HoREA) sent a letter to the SBV, saying both credit institutions and all their customers including firms, investors and homebuyers, are very interested and are waiting for the circular to come into force.

Lê Hoàng Châu, HoREA’s chairman, said HoREA highly appreciates the content of the draft circular on restructuring the repayment term and keeping the debt group unchanged.

However, he said, due to the urgent need to remove difficulties in the economy, including the real estate and corporate bond markets, the association proposed the SBV submit to the Government for permission to build and promulgate the circular according to the simplified order and procedures.

On April 16 this year, the Government Office issued an announcement on the conclusion of Deputy Prime Minister Trần Hồng Hà at a meeting with the Prime Minister's Working Group on solving difficulties and obstacles in the implementation of real estate projects.

In the announcement, the Deputy Prime Minister directed the SBV to issue a circular on restructuring debt repayment terms and criteria for assessing customer capacity before April 25, 2023. The circular is aimed to assist the customers in solving difficulties, and contributing to the development of investment, production and business activities.

According to experts, if the circular is issued, credit institutions will have more policies to support firms, including real estate ones, as the firms’ existing debts will not be transferred to the bad debt group. Therefore, they will have more time to improve their cash flow to repay bonds.

However, experts said credit institutions will carefully select firms to be qualified for debt restructuring to avoid having to spend on risk provisions that can affect their profits. — VNS