A staff member of VPBank helps a small business owner in online selling. — Photo courtesy of the bank

HÀ NỘI — VPBank was honoured as the best bank for corporate social responsibility (CSR) in 2020 by Asiamoney magazine for its online training programme named “Small Business Academy”.

Asiamoney highly valued VPBank for its efforts to fulfil its responsibility to the small-and-medium enterprise (SME) community through diverse activities such as successfully organising 10 online courses through Facebook livestream, attracting nearly 300,000 followers and seminars to discuss the knowledge of online business, customer care skills, product pricing or useful financial management.

VPBank has also actively co-operated with major partners such as Be Group, Tiki, Shopee and Sendo to provide special incentives and promotions for SMEs; invite leading experts and guests in the online business field such as Vinalink Chairman Tuấn Hà, Admin Group Digital Marketing Việt Nam Nguyễn Thăng Long, CEO Mopi Studio Vũ Minh Trà to share knowledge and answer practical questions. After the courses, VPBank sent its sales staff to local areas to provide more specific guidance for small businesses, as well as continue to maintain experience sharing sessions on a Facebook Group named “Small Business Academy”. It has been ready to support small businesses when problems arise about online business.

According to VPBank's representative, the “Small Business Academy” could be considered Asia's most unique CSR project when combining digital elements and operating in the online environment. This is both a solution of the bank in a difficult period due to the COVID-19 pandemic and a responsibility to the social community. At the end of the project, VPBank successfully supported more than 3,000 small businesses to effectively apply online selling skills, 300 small businesses had booths on famous e-commerce floors. It has also maintained the online small businesses community of up to 12,500 people.

“The best bank for corporate social responsibility (CSR) in 2020” award once again affirms the correctness, timeliness and quality of the project. This is not only an objective assessment of the international community, but also a true reflection of VPBank’s efforts to contribute to the country’s socio-economic development over the past 27 years,” he said.

The entire review process, including the steps of nomination and award announcement, was conducted in a transparent and public manner. Accordingly, Asiamoney evaluated the project through the detailed information and specific data that the bank supported for more than 12,500 small businesses across Việt Nam. From the information of the independent evaluation organisers, Asiamoney's team of editors, journalists and researchers conducted analysis and discussions to make the final election decision to ensure the results in the most accurate, fair and comprehensive way.

Asiamoney is the leading prestigious magazine in Asia in economics, finance and banking sector with millions of readers. With its leading position and prestige, annually, Asiamoney organises an award system for banks with outstanding performance by region and country. — VNS