The Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) has signed a loan agreement with Vietnam Prosperity Joint-Stock Commercial Bank (VPBank), a private Vietnamese commercial bank, for up to $27mn, of which about $14mn is JBIC's own lending. The figure is a ceiling: the release describes a limit, not a drawn amount.
Who is lending
The loan is an individual agreement under a credit line JBIC set up with VPBank in October 2024. It is co-financed with Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation and The Joyo Bank. JBIC will also provide a guarantee covering part of the private lenders' financing. The release does not give the loan's rate, tenor or the split of the remainder between the two banks.
What it pays for
VPBank will on-lend the money to fund a grid-upgrade project that Vietnam's national power transmission corporation is carrying out in Ho Chi Minh City. JBIC books the deal under its Global Environment Preservation and Improvement operations, known as GREEN.
JBIC ties the loan to Vietnam's revised eighth national power development plan, updated in April 2025, which aims to expand and refurbish transmission networks so more renewable power can be connected. It says the loan is one of the first batch of 15 Japan-Vietnam cooperation projects agreed in March 2025 by the Japanese embassy, Japanese companies, JBIC and Vietnam's Ministry of Industry and Trade.
JBIC also links the deal to the Asia Zero Emission Community and to the POWERR Asia partnership on energy supply resilience, which the Japanese government launched in April 2026.