Rise from policy credit capital

In Thuan An city, social policy credit has really come into life, helping many policy beneficiaries, poor and near-poor households step by step get out of poverty sustainably.

Effective support

During the past 20 years (2002-2022), with the right development orientation, along with the drastic direction of Thuan An city’s Party Committee and People's Committee, the local socio-economic situation has constantly developed with political security and social safety-order maintained, people's living standards improved increasingly. The number of the local rich households has increased constantly. However, there are still many cases in need of help, promoting preferential loans to support the poor to overcome difficulties and stabilize their lives.

A staff of the Transaction Office of Thuan An city-based VBSP branch give regards to people who have used policy credit capital for homebased business development

After 20 years of operation, the Transaction Office of Thuan An city-based branch of the Bank for Social Policies (VBSP) has built a wide network, operating more and more effectively. Currently, there are 9/10 communes and wards with transaction points, with 176 saving and loan groups spread evenly in areas and hamlets, creating favorable conditions for people who need loans, saving time and travel expenses. The transaction office has regularly worked with departments and socio-political organizations to focus on effectively implementing policy credit programs, helping people quickly access them. The results of entrusting loans through socio-political organizations by the end of June 2022 reached over VND 511.4 billion, with 9,258 households having outstanding loans, accounting for 66.8% of total outstanding loans.

Dong Quoc Khai, Director of the Transaction Office of Thuan An city-based VBSP branch said that in order to ensure sufficient capital to implement local social policy credit programs, the transaction office has been proactive to advise higher authorities on arranging capital under the assigned targets. Along with the Government's capital, the local State budget has also transferred entrusted capital through the Transaction Office of Thuan An city-based VBSP branch to lend for policy credit programs. In addition, the local capital has increased rapidly since the issuance of the Directive No. 40 of the Party Central Committee's Secretariat on strengthening the Party's leadership in social policy credit. The transaction office has also focused on tapping capital sources from the markets that are subsidized by the State budget, especially well realize the task of receiving deposits from the poor in order to create a habit of accumulating and supporting the poor to step by step approach to banking services.

Sustainable escape from poverty

With the attention of the local government plus the dedicated guidance from the transaction office’s staff, in 2020, Nguyen Huu Muoi, the owner of a wooden chopping-board factory in Lai Thieu ward’s Hoa Long quarter bravely borrowed VND 50 million from the poverty escape program. Since then, he has invested in buying materials and machines to produce at the needs of consumers.

Mr. Muoi shared that thanks to timely preferential loans, his family's traditional production model has been maintained, creating a stable source of goods for the market. With stable income from the model, his family’s life has got better. This model has also created jobs for some local workers. "I hope that the State will increase the level of loans so that policy beneficiaries have more resources to invest in production and business in the near future", he said.

Possibly seeing, after 20 years of implementing the Government’s Decree No. 78/ND-CP, policy credit capital has been invested in all quarters and hamlets. In Thuan An city, there were more than 56,000 turns of poor households and other policy beneficiaries getting loans from the transaction office, with loan turnover of more than VND1.63 trillion. The capital source has helped nearly 7,000 households overcome the poverty line; attracted and created jobs for nearly 19,000 workers; helped build and upgrade nearly 15,000 clean water and environmental sanitation works in rural areas; bought, built and repaired over 300 houses for poor households and other policy beneficiaries...More than 3,200 turns of students with difficult circumstances were also helped to get loans for their learning. 

Nguyen Thi Hien, Vice-Chairwoman of Thuan An city’s People's Committee, Head of the Directorate of the Transaction Office of Thuan An city-based VBSP branch said that over the past time, the Directorate directed members, communes and wards to actively promote propaganda to the local poor people and policy beneficiary. Since then, more and more households have been able to access capital and do business effectively. On the other hand, policy credit capital has reached right beneficiaries, contributing to preventing usury. And above all, borrowers have used capital effectively, contributing to improving the quality of life, narrowing the gap between the rich and the poor. Statistics show that the rate of poor households decreased from 9.51% to 3.92% in the period of 2006-2010, from 4.40% to 0.85% in the period of 2011-2015, from 2.48% to 1.91% in the period of 2016-2020. Along with the people's efforts in economic development, the credit source of the Transaction Office of Thuan An city-based VBSP branch has given more resources to help the local poor, near-poor households and policy families confidently develop their economy, rising out of poverty sustainably, contributing to the local socio-economic development.

Reported by Thanh Hong-Translated by Kim Tin