The International Finance Corporation (IFC) in Vietnam announced in capital Hanoi on Friday that it will provide a loan of 10 million U.S. dollars to the Oriental Commercial Bank (OCB) so that the latter can support operations of the small and medium import-export enterprises in the context of global tightened credit lending.

Simon Andrews, Director of IFC for Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia and Laos, said IFC pledged to support banks to grant loans to small and medium enterprises (SMEs) involving in import and export activities. The OCB is one of the first two banks in Vietnam to participate in IFC's financial support project, under which IFC will provide credits in U.S. dollars to support SMEs.

IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, is an international financial institution which offers investment, advisory, and asset management services to encourage private sector development in developing countries. Over the past five years, IFC has granted more than 1 billion U.S. dollars to support Vietnamese SMEs.

Xinhua