BIDV Yangon: 5 years and counting

TRUNG HIEU

Leaders and staffs of BIDV Yangon

After 5 years of operation in the Myanmar market, Yangon Branch has affirmed its position as a professional and prestigious foreign bank branch, an effective bridge between Vietnam and Myanmar.

Under the Vietnam - Myanmar Joint Statement on 12 priority areas in economic cooperation, including financial - banking sector, as tasked with by the Prime Minister of Vietnam, in April 2010 BIDV officially established a representative office in Myanmar. Since then, BIDV has strongly deployed activities in the country through the role of Chairman of the Association of Vietnamese Investors in Myanmar (AVIM), opening a representative office of BIDV Insurance Corporation and BIDV Myanmar Microfinance Company in Myanmar.

On 30 June 2016 in the capital city of Nay Pyi Taw, the Central Bank of Myanmar (CBM) granted a license for BIDV to establish a branch operating in Myanmar market. The licensing ceremony took place just after nearly 4 months since the preliminary approval decision. The bank’s branch in the Myanmar, BIDV Yangon is the first branch of BIDV in foreign countries besides its subsidiaries in Laos and Cambodia. The branch was expected to deeply participate in the banking and financial system in Myanmar as well as acting as a bridge to promote economic, trade and investment cooperation between Vietnam and Myanmar.

The branch has achieved positive growth in terms of size and operational efficiency. The branch has started to be profitable since the third year of establishment while it usually takes 5 years for a foreign bank branch to be so. As of June 2021, the branch's total assets reached USD132 million, demand deposits reached USD38 million and loan balance averaged USD27 million. The number of corporate customers increased by an average of 50 percent per year and the profit was over USD1 million per year. Such figures are still modest due to many objective reasons such as the Myanmar situation as well as legal barriers for foreign banks.

The branch has excelled at all tasks over the past 5 years, receiving many emulation flags and certificates of merit from BIDV, and the Governor of the State Bank of Vietnam. BIDV Yangon has been highly appreciated

by the Central Bank of Myanmar for promoting economic and trade relations between the two countries. Such achievements are attributed to the efforts of all staffs of the branch, including Myanmar employees. The number of Myanmar staffs has significantly increased since the establishment date, now accounting for more than 50 percent of the branch's staff force.

With the goal of diversifying the customer base, in addition to the Vietnamese businesses operating in the area, the branch has also focused on approaching customers from Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, etc. Taking advantage of the opportunity when the Central Bank of Myanmar allowed foreign bank branches to serve local businesses since the end of 2018, the branch has attracted local customers to open accounts and use the branch's products and services, most of them having commercial relationships with Vietnamese companies in Myanmar as well as in Vietnam. After 5 years of operation in the Myanmar market, Yangon Branch has affirmed its position as a professional and prestigious foreign bank branch, an effective bridge between Vietnam and Myanmar.

BIDV Yangon also focuses on supporting and connecting the Vietnamese business community in Myanmar with the motto "Connection - Cooperation - Success". BIDV Yangon has successfully fulfilled its role of leading and connecting Vietnamese businesses investing and doing business in Myanmar through providing effective consultancy and support in terms of legal affairs, market, sectors and partners. The branch's senior representative has been trusted and elected by the Vietnamese business community in Myanmar as the Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Vietnam Business Club in Myanmar (VBCM) since its establishment (May 2019). Over the past time, VBCM has organized many meaningful activities such as seminars, exchange of experiences, trade and investment promotion in the Myanmar market and social security programs.

Although the branch encountered many difficulties in implementing its operations due to the complicated developments of the Covid-19 pandemic and political turmoil in Myanmar, with the close direction by the BIDV's leadership, the coordination and support by head office units coupled with solidarity and efforts of all staffs, the branch is set to implement synchronous solutions to achieve successes in the following years in the Myanmar market.

BIDV logo seen on top of HAGL Myanmar Center building in Yangon