From policy to practice: strengthening Agribank's capacity for green and inclusive finance

As Vietnam continues to strengthen its green finance framework, ensuring that financial institutions can effectively implement new regulations is essential. Through a series of technical workshops organised in partnership with the State Bank of Vietnam and KLINOVA, the Finance for Resilience project supported Agribank managers and credit officers in applying green finance principles to their day-to-day lending practices, contributing to more sustainable and inclusive investment across the country.

Vietnam has taken important steps towards building a sustainable financial system through Decision No. 21/2025/QĐ-TTg (the Green Taxonomy) and Circular No. 17/2022/TT-NHNN on environmental risk management. 

Yet for many lending officers, the real challenge begins after the regulations are issued : how can they determine whether a project is genuinely green? What evidence should they request? How can environmental risks be assessed without making the lending process more burdensome?

To help answer these questions, the Finance for resilience project, in partnership with the State Bank of Vietnam and KLINOVA, organised two technical workshops on 20–21 July 2026 in Hanoi and 23–24 July 2026 in Ho Chi Minh City. Bringing together 120 Agribank managers and credit officers, the workshops focused on translating policy into practice through real-life lending cases, interactive discussions and hands-on exercises that reflected the challenges participants face in their daily work.

For  the Finance for resilience project, these workshops represent far more than a capacity-building initiative. The project seeks to strengthen inclusive finance by improving both the accessibility and quality of financial services for smallholders, cooperatives and SMEs. Building the capacity of financial institutions to interpret and apply green finance regulations is therefore a critical part of the project's approach. By strengthening the supply side of the financial sector and supporting the implementation of the State Bank of Vietnam’s green finance and inclusive finance strategy, the project is helping to create an enabling environment in which climate-resilient and sustainable investments can be financed more effectively, not only in Hue City but also through lessons and approaches that can be scaled across Vietnam.

Agribank, a 100% state-owned bank in Vietnam, is the country's largest provider of agricultural credit, serving approximately 3 million smallholder farmers through a network of over 2,300 branches nationwide. Within the context of the Finance for resilience project, Agribank acts as both a beneficiary and a service provider. The bank receives technical support to design and pilot agricultural value chain finance (AVCF) products while also potentially providing financing for project beneficiaries in Hue and expanding its lending to other provinces in Vietnam.

The Finance for resilience project is advancing inclusive finance initiatives and promoting the sustainable transformation of the agricultural sector, thereby strengthening climate and economic resilience through the AVCF journey. It is funded by the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg and implemented by LuxDev, the Luxembourg Development Cooperation Agency.