Creating momentum for agriculture and rural areas

(Baonghean) -Loans from the Agricultural Bank of Nghia Dan district have helped thousands of households develop production and business effectively, stabilizing social security in the locality. Many of them have established businesses, expanded production and business sectors, creating jobs for many workers...

Since starting his private business, Mr. Dang Van Minh in Cuong hamlet, Nghia Khanh commune (Nghia Dan) has come to the District Agricultural Bank to borrow capital to gradually build his career. Coming from a farming family of 7 siblings, poor family background, Mr. Minh had to drop out of school to work as a carpenter to earn a living after 7th grade. Since learning about carpentry, the opportunity came to him when he established Duc Vinh Private Enterprise, with the business of purchasing and processing forest products. Thanks to the Nghia Dan District Agricultural Bank always accompanying and creating favorable conditions for loans, Duc Vinh Enterprise has overcome difficulties, gradually developed strongly, and contributed a large amount to the State budget.

Up to now, after 16 years of working with the District Agricultural Bank, from borrowing 30 million VND to 50 million, then 200 million VND, and now the loan amount has reached 1.2 billion VND, he always pays the principal and interest on time to the bank. The bank is very secure when lending capital to this customer, because the loan capital is used for the right purpose and effectively. Now, although he is the owner of a famous enterprise in Nghia Dan, he is always as simple as a real farmer, working hard all day with sawing and cutting wood, taking care of everything for the enterprise. When he lacks capital, he rides his motorbike more than 20 km from Nghia Khanh commune to Nghia Dan town to borrow capital. Many days, when the bank is short of capital, he patiently sits and waits all day without complaining, just hoping to have capital to pay for raw materials for production.

In the forest product purchasing and processing industry, Duc Vinh Private Enterprise mainly buys raw materials from garden and forest plantations such as xoan dau, acacia from the western districts of Nghe An... to process and produce wood panels, the output is strongly consumed in the market of Binh Dinh province, with annual sales of more than 2 billion VND. Currently, Mr. Minh has gathered all 7 families of brothers working together in the enterprise, joining hands and hearts in production and business during difficult times. What is even more noteworthy about Duc Vinh Enterprise is that from 2005 to now, every year it has paid taxes to the State about 200 million VND/year, and has been annually commended by the Provincial Tax Department.

Brick production at Mr. Le Tien Dam's household in Nghia Dan Town.

Mr. Le Tien Dam in Tan Hong block, Nghia Dan town chose to develop his economy by making bricks. Since 1990, Mr. Dam borrowed 30 million VND from the District Agricultural Bank to invest in making construction bricks. At that time, due to lack of technology, outdated machinery, business losses, and inability to repay the loan, Mr. Dam had to sell his house to pay off the bank. Falling into bankruptcy, he had no choice but to farm and produce vegetables to support his family.

After stabilizing his life, in 2003, Mr. Dam continued to borrow 30 million VND from the Agricultural Bank to serve production. Farming was still hard and it was difficult to revive his business, so Mr. Dam decided to learn brick production experience. In 2007, he received a loan of 400 million VND from the Agricultural Bank of Nghia Dan district, and invested in upgrading from a manual brick kiln to a tunnel kiln. To make a tunnel kiln, Mr. Dam mobilized his brothers and friends to contribute capital with a total investment cost of approximately 6 billion VND. However, this time, luck was not on his side, brick production and business continued to be ineffective, and shareholders withdrew all their shares.

Once again, Mr. Dam struggled with his brick manufacturing business. In 2013, the bank lent Mr. Dam an additional 800 million VND, helping him pay off all his debts to shareholders. Also from 2013, the production line was stable, producing 20,000 bricks per day, 400,000 - 500,000 bricks of all kinds per month, supplying the markets of Quynh Luu, Nghia Dan, Quy Hop, Thanh Hoa... Bricks were sold as soon as they were produced, and large construction projects also came to Mr. Dam's brick manufacturing facility to place orders.

Thanks to favorable output, Mr. Dam's family's brick production facility has created regular jobs for 40 local workers, and paid nearly 100 million VND in taxes to the State each year. "For nearly 24 years working with the Agricultural Bank of Nghia Dan District, even when I was facing bankruptcy, the bank still encouraged my family to work hard, accumulate from small productions, and still boldly invested capital for the family to borrow, helping us overcome the most difficult period. The meaningful capital from the bank not only helps households restore production, but also motivates all family members to strive, be determined to rise up, repay loans, create material value to enrich the family and society" - Mr. Dam confided.

It is known that after more than 5 years of separation, Nghia Dan District Agricultural Bank has had a good growth, meeting the borrowing needs of people in agricultural and rural areas. At the end of 2008, Nghia Dan District Agricultural Bank had a capital of 82 billion VND, up to now the capital has increased to 350 billion VND. In 2008, the outstanding credit investment debt was 152 billion VND, currently the outstanding debt is 520 billion VND, the capital is focused on investing in household economic development in the spirit of Decree 41/2010/ND-CP. Currently, in Nghia Dan district, there are about 8,000 households borrowing capital from the Agricultural Bank, the capital is invested by people to develop rubber trees, tea, sugarcane, oranges, cassava, brick and tile production, forest product processing, livestock and poultry farming... creating material value in the area.

In recent years, facing the general economic recession, the domestic financial and credit markets have encountered many difficulties. Ineffective production and business in many areas, mutual capital encroachment, overdue debts, and increasing bad debts, leading to weakened capital sources are major concerns. In this context, lending to rural agriculture has proven to be safer and more effective. With loans that are not too large, mainly from 30 to 50 million VND/household, people calculate the basis for investment in practical production and livestock, and must make the capital profitable. That is what we have observed in Nghia Dan district as well as many other localities in the province.

Mr. Phan Duc Tien - Deputy Director of the Provincial Agricultural Bank said: Up to now, the total outstanding debt of the Agricultural Bank system in the whole province has reached about 10,500 billion VND, of which the outstanding loan balance for agriculture and rural areas is about 8,300 billion VND with 107,000 customers receiving loans. The loan capital has met the needs of rural agricultural development, with small loans, creating many jobs for rural workers, contributing to creating many material values, increasing income, improving people's lives. Currently, the Provincial Agricultural Bank system is promoting capital mobilization to meet the increasing demand for capital serving rural agricultural areas in the province.

Article and photos:Gia Trang