Mrs. Tran Thi Thuy Hoa-Secretary General of Vietnam Rubber Association said that, the capital to stimulate agriculture with mechanism of preferential interest rate should be a priority for enterprises borrowing with interest to consume agricultural products with stable prices. At present, even though the price of rubber is lower than that before a lot, fluctuating between 26 to 28 million/ton, and the producers in rubber industry still have interest. However, it is estimated that, the price of rubber is able to be lower in the high season of production and rubber can be higher demand, causing rubber stagnancy damaging the rubber growers. Therefore, the rubber enterprises need capital of 2,000 to 3,000 billion VND to buy rubber for reserve, waiting for high price to export. The capital support for enterprises to buy rubber raw materials will help stability and improve the lives of hundreds of thousands of workers in Rubber Company and tens of thousands of farmers growing rubber maintaining the gardens of rubber in the current period of difficulties. Indeed, at present, many gardens of rubber are temporarily paused to exploit due to low export prices. If this situation lasts in along time, the rubber growers will not have income, Ms. Hoa commented.
Agreed with this point, Mr. Nguyen Duc Thanh - Chairman of the Vietnam Cashew Association also said that priority of capital support for enterprises consume agricultural products with stable price is to help stabilize lives for about 500,000 workers in the cashew processing industry, and hundreds of thousands of farmers growing cashew, improving rural lives. Mr Thanh also said: At present, the cashew sector need a capital of 10 million USD to import about 200,000 tons of raw cashew as materials for production and consume raw cashew for farmers in countries with stable price. The purchase of raw materials now is decisive to the production of cashew sector in 2009.
Mr. Nguyen Duc Thanh also commented that, of course, the capital for stimulation needs to be managed closely, helping to develop rural agriculture but the loan for stimulation needs to have individual and really clear mechanism, not to be managed as the usual way that the banks do at present. It is necessary to manage by giving the loan based on the purposes, and the really effective project of production. Everyone knows that this is the policy of the Government supporting capital for stimulating rural agriculture, but until now, few enterprises of cashew sector borrow this source of capital. Small and medium enterprises for example, it is very difficult for them to borrow stimulated capital with interest guaranteed by the Vietnam development Bank because one of condition for borrow is that they must have 500 labors in one enterprise, while cashew sector mainly using unskilled workers. They should have been encourage because they used many labors, creating many jobs but this to be the barrier of borrowing stimulated capital.
A further difficulty is that the banks must manage the capital for safety and effect. So they still prefer to lend big enterprises with prestige and economic strength rather than lend small enterprises or farmers, it is unintentional the stimulated capital focusing on the big enterprises.
To resolve the problems, Dr. Huynh Van Khiet, Director of Dak Lak Rubber Company said that the State should pour stimulated capital to specific projects, it is certain that it will improve the lives of rural farmers and it is easily to manage capital such as: Finding solutions to support for consuming agricultural products, building roads, irrigation, growing forest, housing for the poor, free vocational training, free electricity for farmers ...

Translated by : C.L