Besides the enhanced access to official credit by means of improvement of lending procedures to be more simplified and appropriate to the people’s level of knowledge, flexible in terms of the repayment time and borrowed amounts, the officialisation of the other credit channels make positive impacts on the creation of sources of capital for rural households, given its efficiency. The efficiency is reflected in the low expenses for the apparatus, the flexibility in terms of the due dates and scales of the loans, the clearly defined purpose of borrowing, and the high feasibility and repayment possibility. | Credit in Rural Vietnam Dao Thi Minh Huong1 1 Institute of Human Studies, Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences. Email: huong_daominh@ Received: Sep. 21, 2016. Accepted: Oct. 21, 2016. Abstract: In addition to official credit institutions, forms of semi- and non-official credit in the models such as borrowings-cum-saving, lending-cum-investment, and rotating saving groups. play an important role in the provision of capital in the rural Vietnam. Besides the enhanced access to official credit by means of improvement of lending procedures to be more simplified and appropriate to the people’s level of knowledge, flexible in terms of the repayment time and borrowed amounts, the officialisation of the other credit channels make positive impacts on the creation of sources of capital for rural households, given its efficiency. The efficiency is reflected in the low expenses for the apparatus, the flexibili ty in terms of the due dates and scales of the loans, the clearly defined purpose of borrowing, and the high feasibility and repayment possibility. Keywords: Credit, rural, Vietnam. 1. Introduction At present, in Vietnam, more than 60% of the population and 90% of poor people live in rural areas. Their incomes depend mainly on agriculture. However, agricultural productivity is very low and under great influence of natural disasters and diseases. As a result, people are unable to obtain accumulations. Many studies have pointed out that accessing credit is one of the farmers’ solutions to deal with risks and vulnerability [6]. It is also an important factor in boosting agricultural production and the change into other sectors such as growing crops and breeding livestock. In rural areas, loans are often used for investments to enhance the productivity on individual and household levels in order to escape poverty, become richer and create possibilities for economic growth for the society as a whole. However, the access to such loans is often limited, especially
