Standard Chartered Bank Vietnam has signed a 70 million USDtrade-finance facility agreement to provide An Giang Plant ProtectionJoint Stock Company with short- to medium-term working capital.

The agreement, inked on January 17, will allow the company to developits large-scale paddy field model in the Mekong Delta.

The model, which is an integrated rice production chain, has been deployed for more than three years.

Under the model, the company purchases rice paddy from farmers who useits products, and then appoints agricultural engineers to providetechnical assistance to those farmers.

This helps raise theoverall quality of the product, offering better returns for improvedfinancial security as well as eliminating value leakage throughintermediaries.

"Standard Chartered's tailor-made products foragriculture allow us to further the success of the large paddy fieldmodel," said Huynh Van Thon, the plant protection company's chairman.

CEO Nirukt Sapru of SCB Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos, said: "We areproud to be the first foreign bank to support the development of thelarge paddy model in Vietnam through this pioneer cooperation. We areencouraged by the way An Giang company is supporting the development ofthe rice industry from which millions of Vietnamese rice growers willbenefit."-VNA