“Catalyst” for STEM industries

Representatives of the Social Policy Bank and trust groups, savings and loan groups communicated the new preferential credit package to the people.

Share the burden with parents

After her husband passed away early, for many years, Ms. Tran Thi Thao (Hamlet 6, Phuc Loc Commune, Nghe An Province) has struggled to raise her 3 children to study. In addition to a few fields, she also took advantage of all kinds of jobs, doing whatever people asked her to do, but she was still short of money. When her son received the results of his admission to the Information Technology major at Hanoi University of Science and Technology, she was very happy and proud. However, where to get money to support him during his university years was a difficult problem. Feeling sorry for her son, she could not sleep at night.

Informed by the Savings and Loan Group about the Special Credit Support Program for STEM Students, she became the first customer to access this loan source from Nghi Loc Social Policy Bank, with the total approved loan amount during the student's study period being 156 million VND. In the 2025-2026 school year, her family will receive a disbursement of 78 million VND to cover tuition, living expenses and other study expenses during the study period, with a loan interest rate of 4.8%/year.

“Thanks to this loan program, otherwise I don’t know how I would manage to get money to send my child to Hanoi to enroll in school. Now I can feel somewhat secure, I just hope my child will try hard to study, grow up soon to be a support for his mother and siblings,” Ms. Thao emotionally shared.

Present at the Anh Son Social Policy Bank Transaction Office to complete the loan disbursement, Mr. Nguyen Viet Duong and his wife, Mrs. Nguyen Thi Huong (Anh Son Dong commune, Nghe An province), said that when their son received the notice of admission to Vinh University, they were both happy and worried. Because after the accident, Mr. Duong lost his ability to work, and the family's finances were largely taken care of by Mrs. Huong. The family's main source of income depends on a few fields and pig farming.

Just the tuition fee, shopping for supplies, living expenses, rent... is more than 20 million VND, making grandparents sweat.

Because my child was admitted to the technical economics major, had good academic performance in 3 years of high school, and averaged 8 points or higher in math, physics, and chemistry in grade 12, he is eligible for preferential loans.

With his son's 4.5 years of study, Mr. Duong's family was able to borrow 333 million VND, disbursed annually or semesterly, with an interest rate of 4.8%/year. The 74 million VND from the first disbursement will be used by Mr. and Mrs. Duong to pay for the first semester's tuition, purchase some equipment for their son's studies, and pay for his monthly living expenses.

“My nephew has to pay back this loan after he graduates and starts working, so we have less pressure…”, Mr. Duong happily shared.

Mr. Duong and his wife went to the bank to complete the procedures for disbursing preferential loans from Special Credit Support for STEM learners.

Expanding lending objects

According to regulations, to be eligible for preferential credit packages under Decision 29/2025/QD-TTg, First-year students must have completed all three years of high school with academic results at a good level or higher as prescribed by law; or have an average score of 8 points or higher in grade 12 in math, physics, chemistry, and biology.

For students from the second year onwards, the average academic results of all subjects must be excellent or higher according to the provisions of law in the year immediately preceding the year of requesting the Social Policy Bank for loan.

Master's and doctoral students are recognized by higher education institutions as master's and doctoral students according to the provisions of law.

The Social Policy Bank makes loans through households. The representative of the student's household is the person who takes out the loan and transacts with the Social Policy Bank.

In case the household has no members aged 18 or older or the remaining members are unable to work or do not have full civil capacity as prescribed by law, the student will directly apply for a loan at the Social Policy Bank.

The Nghe An branch of the Vietnam Bank for Social Policies actively unblocks and maintains the flow of policy credit capital; close to the people, serving the people best.

Mr. Hoang Son Lam, Deputy Director of the Social Policy Bank, Nghe An branch, informed: "If the student loan program, the maximum loan amount is 4 million VND/month/person, according to this new preferential credit package, the loan amount is much higher. Specifically, the maximum loan amount includes all tuition fees of the student as confirmed by the school, living expenses and study expenses up to 5 million VND/month. Of course, the academic requirements of the beneficiaries of this preferential credit package are also higher."

This is a new preferential credit program, so the Nghe An branch of the Social Policy Bank has urgently disseminated the new points and conditions for borrowers to each authorized unit of communes and savings and loan groups in villages and hamlets.

In less than 2 months since the implementation of this credit package, the Nghe An branch of the Social Policy Bank has processed loan applications for 99 customers, with a total loan amount of nearly 8 billion VND, promptly disbursing loans for borrowers to pay contributions at the beginning of the school year. Some transaction offices have a large number of borrowers, such as: Anh Son, Thanh Chuong, Yen Thanh, Quy Hop...

With this loan program, the funds are disbursed for each school year or each semester. The repayment period is twice the loan period, plus the time to find a job after graduating from school for 1 year. The loan interest rate under the program is lower than the interest rate of the previous student credit package and the interest rate of the credit program for the poor.

TRAN TRUNG HIEU

Source: https://nhandan.vn/chat-xuc-tac-cho-cac-nganh-stem-post917467.html