8 million poor households and other subjects receive policy loans

On the morning of September 23, in Hanoi, the Government Office held a national online conference on the effective role of policy credit in achieving the goal of sustainable poverty reduction. Comrade Vuong Dinh Hue - Politburo member, Deputy Prime Minister, Head of the Central Steering Committee for National Target Programs chaired the conference. Also attending were leaders of central ministries, branches, committees of the National Assembly and representatives of leaders of 63 provinces and centrally run cities nationwide.

At Nghe An bridge, comrade Le Ngoc Hoa - Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee chaired.

Central leaders at the Hanoi bridgehead. Photo: Chinhphu.vn

DUhdebt increased by more than 40% with many practical programs

Reporting at the conference, General Director of the Bank for Social Policies Duong Quyet Thang said that as of August 31, 2019, the total outstanding balance of policy credit programs reached VND 199,823 billion, an increase of 40.2% compared to 2015, the average annual growth rate of outstanding balance reached 9.7% with nearly 6.6 million customers with outstanding balances. Social policy credit capital is invested in production development, creating livelihoods, jobs and meeting essential needs in the lives of the poor and other policy subjects, focusing mainly on 9 major credit programs, accounting for nearly 98% of total outstanding balances.

General Director of Vietnam Bank for Social Policies Duong Quyet Thang encouraged people in Ta Ca commune, Ky Son district to effectively promote loans and develop household economy. Photo: Thu Huyen

In addition, the Vietnam Bank for Social Policies is implementing a number of programs and projects entrusted by domestic and foreign organizations and individuals, such as the small and medium-sized enterprise development program with loans from the German Reconstruction Bank (KFW); lending for forestry development projects from the World Bank (WB)...

Policy credit capital is prioritized for lending to poor households and ethnic minority households in remote communes, extremely difficult areas, and border and island areas. As of August 31, 2019, outstanding loans of poor households, near-poor households, and newly escaped poverty households accounted for nearly 56% of total outstanding loans in ethnic minority and mountainous areas, accounting for 52.6% of total outstanding loans nationwide.

Up to now, nearly 8 million poor households and other policy beneficiaries nationwide have borrowed capital from the Vietnam Bank for Social Policies with a loan turnover of VND 221,693 billion, contributing to helping over 1.4 million households overcome the poverty line; attracting and creating jobs for over 775,000 workers; nearly 200,000 students in difficult circumstances have received loans for their studies, building nearly 4.9 million clean water and rural environmental sanitation works, and over 108,000 houses for poor households.

The effectiveness of social policy credit has been recognized and highly appreciated by the Party, National Assembly, Government, Ministries, branches, Party committees, local authorities and people. In the period 2007-2015, the poverty rate decreased from 14.75% to 4.25%; in the period 2016-2018, it decreased from 8.23% to 5.23% (average 1.0%/year).

Delegates attending the meeting at Nghe An bridgehead. Photo: Thu Huyen

In Nghe An, from 2015 to 2019, social policy credit has made an important contribution to helping 93,119 poor households overcome the poverty threshold; 1,729 workers received loans to work abroad; 38,146 households doing business in difficult areas have capital to invest in production and business; 8,466 poor households received loans to build new or repair houses, build flood shelters, helping the poor have solid and stable houses, eliminating the situation of makeshift and dilapidated houses; nearly 11,000 students in difficult circumstances received loans to study, there is no longer a situation where poor students have to drop out of school due to lack of money to pay tuition; more than 7,500 households of ethnic minorities with special difficulties received loans to develop production, stabilize their lives, and feel secure in their land and villages in remote, isolated and border areas...

Ms. Ha Thi Long, representative of the savings and loan group of Mon Son commune - Con Cuong, gave a speech at the conference. Photo: Thu Huyen

Promoting the role and effectiveness of policy credit

At the Conference, leaders of central ministries, branches, localities and policy credit officers focused on discussing and evaluating the implementation of policy credit in the past time and proposed more effective solutions in the coming time, including taking into account the application of policies to each region and area to contribute to changing the mindset of production and business, increasing the income of the poor and narrowing the gap between rich and poor in the country.

Three groups and two individuals with significant contributions to the implementation of the Government's poverty reduction policy were awarded Certificates of Merit by the General Director of the Vietnam Bank for Social Policies. Photo: Thu Huyen

To continue promoting the effectiveness of social policy credit to contribute to the implementation of the national target program on sustainable poverty reduction, Deputy Prime Minister Vuong Dinh Hue suggested that in the coming time, it is necessary to effectively implement Directive 40 of the Party Central Committee Secretariat on strengthening the Party's leadership over policy credit. Enhance the role and responsibility of Party committees, local authorities at all levels, and socio-political organizations in implementing social policy credit. Pay special attention to credit quality, the entrustment work of socio-political organizations receiving entrustment, the quality of activities of savings and credit groups, and social transaction activities...

On this occasion, 3 groups and 2 individuals with many contributions to implementing the Government's poverty reduction policy received certificates of merit from the General Director of the Vietnam Bank for Social Policies.