2010 Citi Bank Micro Entrepreneur Awards have been awarded to 52 microfinance customers

Hanoi (VNA) – The 2010 Citi Bank Micro Entrepreneur Awards have been awarded to 52
microfinance customers and 16 staff from across Vietnam for successfully using loans
to do business and improving living standards.

Seven microfinance organisations won awards for programmes that extended micro
financing services for the poor, which have contributed to reducing poverty.

Speaking at the presentation ceremony in Hanoi on December 14, Brett Krause,
Citibank’s Country Director, confirmed that microfinance is one of several social
activities and community development programmes that Citi Bank has been conducting
for over 25 years.

Also present at the ceremony was To Hoai Nam, General Secretary of the Vietnamese
Small and Medium Sized Enterprises Association, who said that the awards helped
encourage small enterprises in business.

On recognising the marked improvement in awareness and support for microfinance in
Vietnam thanks to pledges from the Government and donors, Duong Quoc Anh, the Chief
Inspector of the State Bank of Vietnam said he would assist microfinance
organisations in Vietnam to integrate into mainstream financial and banking sector.
He said this would bring benefits to the poor in all walks of life in Vietnam.

The 2010 Citi Bank Micro Entrepreneur Awards came to over 600 million VND (30,000
USD).

Since 2007, the Micro Entrepreneur Awards have been presented to 290 individuals,
with a value of 2.25 billion VND.-Enditem