Lending capital to ethnic minority households with special difficulties

DECISION

On lending capital for production development

for ethnic minority households with special difficulties

______

PRIME MINISTER

Pursuant to the Law on Organization of the Government dated December 25, 2001;

Considering the proposal of the Minister, Chairman of the Ethnic Committee,

DECISION :

Article 1.Provide loans to ethnic minority households with special difficulties to develop production, stabilize life, and soon overcome poverty.

1. Borrowers

Ethnic minority households (including households with an ethnic minority spouse) living in communes (communes, wards, towns) in disadvantaged areas specified in Decision No. 30/2007/QD-TTg dated March 5, 2007 of the Prime Minister on promulgating the List of administrative units in disadvantaged areas, must meet 3 criteria:

a) Have an average income per capita of less than 60,000 VND/month;

b) Total value of household assets does not exceed 3 million VND (excluding value of land use rights, value of camps on fields, and houses supported by the State and organizations);

c) Have production direction but lack or have no production capital.

2. Principles of lending capital

a) The consideration of ethnic minority households with special difficulties is carried out on the basis of public, democratic, and targeted evaluation at the grassroots level, and a list is made for each commune; this list is reviewed annually to supplement and remove from the list households that are no longer eligible;

b) Lending must be based on specific production plans and commitments of each household or group of households, linked to business guidance from authorities and socio-political organizations at all levels; priority is given to households with more difficulties to borrow capital first;

c) The Social Policy Bank shall carry out lending and may partially entrust lending and debt collection to grassroots socio-political organizations.

3. The implementation period of phase I is from 2007 to 2010. In 2010, the results of implementation will be summarized and evaluated, and policies will be adjusted and supplemented to suit the following phases.

Article 2. Loan policy content

1. Conditions for borrowing capital

a) Ethnic minority households with special difficulties as prescribed in Clause 1, Article 1 of this Decision, with legal residence, included in the list prepared by the Commune People's Committee and approved by the District People's Committee;

b) Have a plan to use loan capital for production and business that is confirmed or supported by the government and socio-political organizations of the village or hamlet or is established by the family.

2. Loan form and amount

a) Can borrow once or many times;

b) Total loan amount is not more than 5 million VND/household; no collateral is required and administrative fees for borrowing are exempted.

In case households have a need to borrow capital beyond the above prescribed level, the lending policy for poor households prescribed in Decree No. 78/2002/ND-CP dated October 4, 2002 of the Government on credit for the poor and other policy subjects shall apply.

3. The loan term is based on the purpose of using the loan, the borrower's repayment capacity and is regulated by the Social Policy Bank. In case the loan repayment deadline comes, but the borrower is still in a particularly difficult situation and needs to continue using the loan, the Social Policy Bank will consider extending the loan term.

4. Loan interest rate is 0%.

5. Risk management

For households facing risks due to natural disasters, fires, epidemics or other unavoidable difficulties and unable to repay their debts, the Commune People's Committee shall prepare a Confirmation Record and send it to the District Social Policy Bank to synthesize a report for the District People's Committee to approve and send it to the Provincial Social Policy Bank to synthesize and submit to the Provincial People's Committee for consideration and decision on debt cancellation.

Article 3.About capital

1. For localities that cannot balance their budgets: the central budget shall provide capital to the Social Policy Bank to carry out lending under this Decision.

2. For localities that can balance their own budgets: the implementation costs are included in the local budget. Every year, the People's Committees at all levels arrange this amount in the local budget estimate to be submitted to the People's Council for approval and transfer to the Social Policy Bank to implement the loan.

Article 4.Implementing organization

1. The Ethnic Committee is responsible for:

a) Preside over and coordinate with relevant ministries, branches and agencies to issue Circulars guiding the implementation of this Decision;

b) Take charge of annually reviewing, supplementing, and developing capital demand plans to send to the Ministry of Planning and Investment and the Ministry of Finance for inclusion in the annual state budget estimates; in 2007 alone, assign the two Ministries of Planning and Investment and Finance to find capital sources and propose to the Prime Minister for consideration and decision;

c) Preside over and coordinate with relevant ministries and branches to inspect and supervise the implementation of loan policies and synthesize annual reports to the Prime Minister.

2. Social Policy Bank:

a) Responsibilities:

- Provide guidance on loan processes and procedures to ensure they are simple, clear, and easy to implement; provide loans, collect debts, and advise People's Committees at all levels on risk handling;

- Prepare disbursement progress plan and send it to the Ministry of Finance (also send it to the Ministry of Planning and Investment and the Ethnic Committee for coordination);

- Report implementation results to the Prime Minister every 6 months (send to the Ethnic Committee, Ministry of Planning and Investment, Ministry of Finance).

b) Benefits: compensation for management costs equal to 0.3% of average annual outstanding debt.

3. The Ministry of Planning and Investment is responsible for: presiding over and coordinating with the Ministry of Finance and the Ethnic Committee to develop a capital plan and submit it to the Prime Minister.

4. The Ministry of Finance is responsible for: providing capital and management costs for the Social Policy Bank according to the implementation progress.

5. The Provincial People's Committee is directly and comprehensively responsible for directing and organizing the implementation of lending and debt collection in the locality, specifically:

a) Specify guidance documents to suit local situations (if necessary);

b) Directing the integration of capital sources to implement other policies in the area (Program 134, Program 135, price and freight subsidy policies, agricultural and forestry promotion...) to increase the efficiency of loan use and limit risks;

c) Assign responsibilities to agencies and units (Departments, branches, sectors, mass organizations...) of the province to perform tasks related to organizing guidance for households borrowing capital on how to do business, how to use loans effectively and repay debts to the Social Policy Bank; the local ethnic affairs agency is the standing agency, advising the People's Committees at all levels to organize the implementation of this loan policy;

d) Issue a decision to cancel debt upon request of the District People's Committee submitted by the Provincial Social Policy Bank Branch;

d) Inspect and evaluate the implementation of lending and capital use in the locality and report to the Ethnic Committee as prescribed.

6. The District People's Committee is responsible for:

a) Direct the People's Committee of the commune and support the Social Policy Bank to organize the implementation of lending and debt collection;

b) Approve the list of beneficiaries and annual loan recipients of each commune to report to the Provincial People's Committee;

c) Appraise reports on the risk situation in the use of loan capital of communes and send them to the Provincial Social Policy Bank Branch for synthesis and submission to the Provincial People's Committee for decision on handling;

d) Report implementation results to the Provincial People's Committee every 6 months.

7. The People's Committee of the commune is responsible for:

a) Widely disseminate to all people documents regulating and guiding the implementation of capital lending to ethnic minority households with special difficulties; organize public evaluation, prioritize classification, make annual lists of beneficiaries and send them to the District People's Committee for approval and assign organizations and individuals to directly help and guide ethnic minority households with special difficulties in how to make a living, eliminate hunger and reduce poverty and send them to the District People's Committee for approval;

b) Support the Social Policy Bank in disbursing; regularly monitor, inspect, urge and support households in the process of using capital and repaying loans;

c) Direct the Steering Committee of the Hunger Eradication and Poverty Reduction Program at the commune level to coordinate with socio-political organizations to supervise the evaluation of especially disadvantaged ethnic minority households to receive loans in a democratic and public manner, confirm the list of loan households; coordinate with lending organizations and savings and loan groups to inspect the use of loans and urge debt collection;

d) Report implementation results to the District People's Committee every 6 months.

Article 5. This Decision takes effect 15 days after the date of publication in the Official Gazette. Annuls Decision No. 166/2001/QD-UBDT dated September 5, 2001 of the Minister, Chairman of the Committee for Ethnic Minorities and Mountainous Areas on promulgating the Regulation on criteria for ethnic minority households with special difficulties and Joint Circular No. 912/2001/TTLT/UBDTMN/BTC/BKHĐT dated November 16, 2001 of the Joint Committee for Ethnic Minorities and Mountainous Areas - Ministry of Finance - Ministry of Planning and Investment guiding the implementation of the policy on Support for ethnic minority households with special difficulties.

Article 6.Ministers, Heads of ministerial-level agencies, Heads of Government agencies, Chairmen of People's Committees of provinces and centrally-run cities, Chairman of the Board of Directors, General Director of the Vietnam Bank for Social Policies are responsible for implementing this Decision./.

PRIME MINISTER

(Signed)

Nguyen Tan Dung