To support production capital for people with meritorious services to rise up

In addition to being interested in housing construction, people with meritorious services in the province are facilitated by the local authority and the provincial Bank for Social Policies to borrow capital for production and business operations. Thanks to the loans, many families have built businesses to bring about stable income and gradually get rich.

Efficient borrowed capital

The source of preferential credit loans, which was previously only VND 50 million a household, is now increased to VND 100 million for terms of 5 years. The increased loan amounts and simple loan procedures have offered thousands of policy households and people with meritorious services quick access to get capital to do business.

Mr. Pham Chi Thanh's family, the son of a 3/4 wounded soldier, living in Quarter 8 of Phu Hoa ward in Thu Dau Mot city is typical in the effective use of borrowed capital. Thanh and his wife own a large kiosk selling electric bicycles and children's toys on Phu Loi street of Phu Hoa ward with an income of millions of VND day. Thanh said, in 1973, his father from Nam Dinh province crossed Truong Son to the South to join the resistance war and liberate the country; then, he continued to fight for 10 years in the Cambodian battlefield and was wounded. Because his father's health was in bad health, his family's economy was not as well-off as many other families.

Hoang Van Bach and his wife's teddy bear shop was also built with policy capital resources and brought his family a stable income.

After getting married, Thanh and his wife also worked hard through various jobs but still faced difficulties. Five years ago, when he had access to preferential loans, plus the meager money he had accumulated for so long, he boldly rented the premises to do business. He confided: “Thanks to the loan, I have opened a business to earn a stable income. My wife and I have bought land and will build a house in the near future. Although I now have a business, and the loan term has expired, but I am offered to borrow to expand the facility. I find this a very useful source of loan for people like us.”

Mrs. Nguyen Thi Thu Trang and Mr. Hoang Van Bach, owners of a teddy bear shop on Nguyen Thi Minh Khai Street at Phu Hoa ward in Thu Dau Mot city, had previously been in a difficult situation. Thanks to loans from preferential policies, Mrs. Trang not only escaped poverty but also gradually rose to get rich righteously. Mrs. Trang is the daughter of a family of war invalids. Both husband and wife used to work as workers in the past, and had a good income, but they were still spending a lot for their families.

Three years ago, they quit the job at the company to start a business. At first, due to limited capital, and because the number of imported goods for sale was not rich leading to few customers the approved loan of VND 70 million by the locality 2 years ago helped Trang and her husband to earn more customers and increase income. Mr. Hoang Van Bach said: "Since we have money to get beautiful and diverse products to meet the needs of users, we open more online sales channels, so we have a relatively stable number of customers for higher income. If it is favorable, in the near future, we will also be able to buy land and houses like many others.”

In recent years, thousands of children of war invalids and martyrs' families have access to local preferential loans, thereby creating effective business models such as restaurant, grocery, livestock store, clean vegetables sales, mushrooms sales, motorcycle repair shops etc. to bring a stable income, and change lives.

To raise the standard of living of the family of meritorious people

In order to create favorable conditions for policy beneficiaries to borrow money, save transaction costs, time and ensure safety in the transaction process, the social policy banks of districts, towns and cities have decided to build a system of transaction points at the headquarters of the People's Committees of communes, wards and townships to conduct transactions at least one fixed day per month. At the commune transaction point, the list of borrowers and the procedures of the social policy bank are publicly posted; borrowers transact directly with the social policy bank in the presence of management and local authorities, thereby, limiting capital appropriation, and creating people's trust in the preferential credit policy of the government. This is a step forward in administrative procedure reform and is a unique feature of the social policy bank, which is promoting its effectiveness in the operation of the social policy bank.

Mr. Nguyen Truong Bao Khanh, Deputy Director of the Social Policy Bank of Thuan An city, said that the Social Policy Bank always pays attention, prioritizes and creates favorable conditions for families and people with meritorious services to access the capital resources as quickly as possible. In addition, the school-aged children and students under the policy also have access to loans to have conditions to study and rise. It can be said that, over the past 20 years of construction and development, accompanying policy beneficiaries with difficult circumstances, the Social Policy Bank of Thuan An city has closely coordinated with key departments and organizations. Socio-economic development focuses on effectively implementing policy credit programs, contributing to socio-economic development, realizing the goal of sustainable poverty reduction, ensuring social security, and building new rural areas.

In order for the loan capital to be used efficiently and for the right purposes, the commune-level local authorities shall coordinate with the social policy bank to review, appraise and compile the borrower's profile. During the lending process, the Bank for Social Policies always actively accompanies the heads of the zones and hamlets in propagating preferential credit policies, establishing loan savings groups, and supervising borrowers using capital loan for the right purposes.

Mr. Pham Van Thanh, a 3/4 war invalids and leader of the savings group to borrow money in Quarter 8 of Phu Hoa ward in Thu Dau Mot City, said: “My neighborhood alone currently has more than 20 households with children to have access to preferential loans and policies. It can be affirmed that, thanks to this capital, the children have had business capital, higher and higher income, and improved living standards compared to before. Thanks to the low preferential interest rate per month, all borrowers contribute both principal and interest to the group. Before taking out a loan, we check what the loan is for, and it must be used for the right purpose, so for many years, no member has used the capital for the wrong purposes.”

Talking to us, Mr. Nguyen Ba Phuong, Deputy Director of the Provincial Bank for Social Policies, said that in the past 5 years alone, localities have coordinated with banks to handle preferential loan applications for loans to customers in the province with a total loan amount of up to thousands of billions of VND . This capital has been effectively promoted, contributing to improving the income and quality of life of families.

Reported by Quang Dien – Translated by Vi Bao