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| Photo for illustration. (Source: vietnamnet.vn) |
Meaningful numbers
By July 31, the total social policy credit capital reached nearly 325 trillion VND, said Mr. Duong Quyet Thang - General Director of VBSP, in a recent conference on “Social policy credit with the issue of implementing and ensuring social security”, organized by the Vietnam Bank for Social Policies (VBSP) in collaboration with the Ho Chi Minh National Academy of Politics.
Of the total outstanding social policy credit, outstanding loans to communes in ethnic minority and mountainous areas are nearly 109 trillion VND, accounting for 35.7% of the total, with more than 2.2 million customers. Outstanding loans in poor districts are nearly 30 trillion VND, accounting for 9.8% of the total with nearly 540,000 customers. Outstanding debt for ethnic minority customers is over 75 trillion VND, accounting for 24.7% of the total with over 1.4 million customers.
VBSP capital has helped nearly 6.3 million households overcome the poverty threshold, creating jobs for more than 5.9 million workers; supported more than 3.8 million students with loans; helped buy more than 84,000 computers and online learning equipment for students; and built more than 16.8 million clean water and rural environmental sanitation projects.
The capital also helped build nearly 729,000 houses for the poor and other policy beneficiaries; and supported capital purchase/lease purchase of more than 29,700 social housing houses.
Social policy credit has contributed to reducing the poverty rate across the country through various periods, specifically: from 17% to 7% in 2001 - 2005; from 22% to 9.45% in 2005 - 2010; from 14.2% to 4.25% in 2011 - 2015; and from 9.88% to 2.23% in 2016 - 2021.
At the same time, the credit contributed to implementing 9 out of 19 criteria for building new-style rural areas on residential housing; income; poverty rate; employed workers; education and training; environment and food safety; political system building; and national defense and security.
The model always considers people as center
The most important thing is that social policy credit is very close to people, always takes people and households as the center, and always closely follows the guidelines and policies of the Party and State in supporting the poor.
According to Deputy Governor of the State Bank of Vietnam Dao Minh Tu, the change of the poor is the benefit of VBSP and the whole society. That is reducing poverty, narrowing the gap between rural and urban areas, helping the poor have the opportunity to access minimum services.
The Vietnam Women’s Union is the largest organization entrusted to receive capital from VBSP. Ms. Ha Thi Nga, President of the Union, said that among the 6.6 million customers of VBSP, 4.4 million customers are poor women, accounting for over 66% of the total customers. This number is extremely meaningful, demonstrating the role of VBSP not only in helping households escape poverty, but also in contributing to gender equality.
“For women, the capital source of VBSP not only brings value in household economic development, but also helps women have more opportunities to develop themselves and improve their skills so they know how to use capital effectively,” said Ms. Ha Thi Nga.
Mr. Hau A Lenh, Minister and Chairman of the Committee for Ethnic Minority Affairs, said that credit policy has helped ethnic minorities rise and solve many existing problems. The most important issue is to gradually change thinking and awareness of being self-reliant and self-improved in life through policy design and the implementation of credit policies in each stage.
“Currently, there are about 20 effective credit policies being applied to ethnic minority people. These policies have had direct impact on the lives of people, comprehensively covering other fields such as health, education, and society, not just in the field of economic development,” Minister Hau A Lenh said./.