Hanoi (VNA) – 🅷More than 206.8 trillion VND (8.87 billion USD) from social policy credit programmes has been allocated to poor households and other social policy beneficiaries.

Moreover, directing people towards major local projects has helped them integrate deeper into added value chains.

Root of growth

 📖Preferential loans from the Vietnam Bank for Social Policies (VBSP) have assisted poor women and social policy beneficiaries in Tuan Tu hamlet, An Hai commune, Ninh Phuoc district, central Binh Thuan province, in setting up the Tuan Tu co-operative in June 2016.

With the initial 13 members who contributed 3 million VND each in the first days, the co-operative now brings together 63 members, with all of them clients of the VBSP. They have joined hands to transform 20 ha of vegetables into high-tech asparagus fields whose productivity is 1.5 times higher than the traditional crops, helping 20 households escape from poverty. The province has regarded policy credit loans as momentum for the local economy. In Ninh Phuoc district, for example, credit balance of 480 billion VND has been oriented towards optimising the locality’s advantages, including brocade weaving and pottery villages.

🌺[Social policy credit proves useful for poverty reduction: meeting]

The loans have also been used in support of start-ups. With 400 million VND from the VBSP, Nguyen Chuong Phi, Director of Quang Minh Phuoc Co., Ltd, in the southern province of Dong Thap built a facility that produces 7-8 tonnes of dried sweet potato and banana each month, and creates jobs for 20 labourers, including more than 10 permanent ones, each with monthly salary of 5 million VND.

The company has invested in three big dehydrator machines and planned to export dried fruits and vegetables, he said.

New breakthroughs expected

How to reduce poverty sustainably has remained a big challenge in the context of intensive and extensive integration. Poverty relapse may come at any time due to natural disasters. These loans have remained limited as compared with the great demand of the poor and other groups of social policy beneficiaries. Therefore, materialising Directive No. 40 plays a significant role in the implementation of social policy credits. The document mobilises human resources and capital of not only localities but also the business community, social organisations and individuals in sustainable poverty reduction, so that no one is left behind. It also targets economic growth and social equality and progress. To realise the Directive, localities have adopted policies that promise to create breakthroughs in implementing social policy credits in localities. It is noteworthy that many localities have considered outcomes of the implementation of Directive No. 40 the criteria assessing the performance of leaders and agencies. All-level Party Committees and authorities, and people have proposed the Government, ministries and agencies review and supplement policies relating to social policy credits, in order to mobilise, manage and use resources effectively. 2020 is the last year to implement the development strategy of the VBSP for the 2011-2020 period. Therefore, the bank has strived to well implement the credit plans assigned by the Prime Minister, prioritised lending to poor and near-poor households, those just getting out of poverty, communes in ethnic minority, extremely difficult, remote and border areas as well as regions hit by natural disasters, in combination with national target programmes on sustainable poverty reduction and new-style rural area building./.