Part 3: Accompanying Thai Nguyen's development

During a visit to Thai Nguyen , Uncle Ho advised: "...Our province has many favorable conditions, all compatriots and cadres must strive to make Thai Nguyen one of the richest and most prosperous provinces in the North of our country...". Remembering his advice, over the past 60 years, the Party Committee and people of all ethnic groups in Thai Nguyen province have always promoted the revolutionary tradition, solidarity, strived to build Thai Nguyen into a rich, prosperous province, the center of the Northern mountainous region.

In the coming time, on the development journey of revolutionary countryside, the flow of policy credit will continue to be persistent to contribute to achieving the goal of rapid and sustainable poverty reduction, building new rural areas, ensuring social security, and narrowing the gap between rich and poor regions.

Understanding people's hearts, serving wholeheartedly

Coming to Thai Nguyen in the days after the historic storm, people's lives have returned to normal, but the damage caused by storm Yagi is still there. According to the report of the Provincial Steering Committee for Natural Disaster Prevention and Search and Rescue, the total damage caused by the storm in the whole province is estimated at more than 600 billion VND. This is considered a historic flood for Thai Nguyen people in recent decades.

In times of hardship, humanity shines brightly. Thai Nguyen people told us beautiful stories about the historic flood, strangers sharing shelter, food, and water. After the flood, overcoming the aftermath became an urgent task, and the staff of the Social Policy Bank set out to visit each household. Because they understood that their customers were already vulnerable and disadvantaged, and now that natural disasters had struck, they were more vulnerable than ever.

Ms. Luyen was in tears when her savings of many years were washed away with the water.

Like the story of Ms. Nguyen Thi Luyen, in Loi B hamlet, Phuong Tien commune, Dinh Hoa district, who is a near-poor household, Ms. Luyen's family is living in a simple two-room house with a corrugated iron roof at the foot of the hill. The night the storm happened, the water from the dam near their house rose high, breaking the dam bank. With the support of neighbors, Ms. Luyen and her husband and two children were lucky to escape, only just in time to run for their lives. The furniture in the house, the fish pond, chicken coop, ducks, and pigs were swept away by the rushing water. The next morning, Ms. Luyen hurriedly went to visit her house, all the assets she had saved up for so long were gone. With tears in her eyes, Ms. Luyen said that the fish pond she had raised for a whole year was being prepared to be sold, the chickens and pigs were also being prepared to be sold. She and her husband thought they would have a warmer and more prosperous Tet, but now there was nothing left, the barn was completely damaged, the damage was estimated at more than 200 million VND. In the midst of the difficulties, staff from the transaction office of the People's Credit Fund of Dinh Hoa district quickly visited, encouraged, and helped the family overcome the consequences of the flood.

The policy bank has provided timely support to families affected by storms and floods like Ms. Luyen.

Mr. Nguyen Phuc Hue, Deputy Director of the Transaction Office of the Social Policy Bank of Dinh Hoa District, said that in the case of Ms. Luyen's family, the bank temporarily stopped collecting interest until the end of 2024, and immediately submitted a debt forgiveness application for 5 years, hoping to help the family have time to recover from difficulties. With the timely support and encouragement and sharing from the policy bank, Ms. Luyen confided that it was the support and trust that the bank gave her family to try to rebuild from the beginning. Because she did not have to pay interest until the end of the year, Ms. Luyen used the money she saved to rebuild the barn and buy new livestock. Regardless of the circumstances, the poor have not given up hope, Ms. Luyen said she will definitely work hard to earn money to pay back the bank.

Or in Cam Gia - the largest and most prosperous peach growing ward on the Cau River in Thai Nguyen city. After the flood, the ward became devastated, desolate, and suffered extremely heavy damage. People were heartbroken because the ancient peach trees and bonsai peach trees withered and died, with no way to recover. Many families invested all their capital in peach gardens, and in the time before Tet, they were preparing peach trees for harvest, but now there are only bare peach stumps left. According to statistics, Cam Gia ward has more than 20 hectares of peach growing land of over 200 households that were flooded and damaged due to the impact of storm No. 3. The total damage was nearly 22 billion VND.

In order to promptly support the people, the provincial Social Policy Bank quickly coordinated with local authorities and entrusted organizations to review the needs, prioritize capital sources, and promptly disburse to customers in need to restore production and business, and soon stabilize their lives. Most recently, on November 26, the provincial Social Policy Bank disbursed VND 6 billion to 74 households in Cam Gia ward to borrow capital to restore the local peach blossom growing village.

In the whole Thai Nguyen province, Deputy Director of the Thai Nguyen Provincial Bank for Social Policies Branch Le Van Hong said that more than 7,000 customers borrowing social policy credit in 133 communes in the province suffered an estimated loss of nearly 395 billion VND. To support customers who suffered losses, the local Bank for Social Policies system has not collected interest until December 31, 2024; adjusted the debt term for affected loans, and established a file to handle risky debt for customers who suffered losses in accordance with regulations. With the huge demand for loans for production and business after the storm, the leader of the Thai Nguyen Provincial Bank for Social Policies said that he had reported and requested the Vietnam Bank for Social Policies and the Thai Nguyen Provincial People's Committee to supplement capital sources to promptly lend to policy-entitled households in the area to restore production and create jobs after the flood, because this is the legitimate aspiration of the people.

Improve efficiency, sustainable development

In her speech, Governor of the State Bank of Vietnam and Chairwoman of the Board of Directors of the Vietnam Bank for Social Policies Nguyen Thi Hong affirmed that in order to achieve the noble goals of a rich people, a strong country, a democratic, fair and civilized society, the Party and the State have issued many policies to support people with many difficulties and vulnerable social groups, in which social policy credit has become an important "pillar", a "bright spot" in the poverty reduction policy system.

Director of the Institute for Policy Research and Media Development Nguyen Quang Dong assessed that Vietnam is one of the most outstanding success stories in poverty reduction and economic development. The VBSP has been assessed by the World Bank as the largest microfinance service provider in Vietnam and one of the largest microfinance banks in Asia.

Credit capital will continue to accompany the people of Thai Nguyen province to overcome hunger, reduce poverty, and take control of their lives.

However, after the successes in the recent period, moving into a new context, there are many new requirements for the activities of the VBSP. Recently, on behalf of the Central Party Secretariat, Standing Secretary of the Secretariat Tran Cam Tu has just signed and issued Directive No. 39-CT/TW on improving the effectiveness of social policy credit in the new period. Accordingly, this Directive aims to adapt to the new situation, especially the complex and unpredictable impacts of traditional and non-traditional security issues, along with the determination to achieve the goal of becoming a socialist country with an upper middle income by 2030 and a high income by 2045, which is posing the requirement to improve the effectiveness of social policy credit.

In Thai Nguyen alone, the Resolution of the 20th Thai Nguyen Provincial Party Congress, term 2020 - 2025, identifies the goal of sustainable multidimensional poverty reduction and poverty reduction. By the end of 2024, a number of goals of the Thai Nguyen Province Sustainable Poverty Reduction Program had been achieved and exceeded the planned targets. With the emulation movement "Thai Nguyen joins hands for the poor - No one is left behind", in the past time, in the province, with the pillar of policy credit and the joint efforts of the entire political system, tens of thousands of households have been supported to reduce poverty, escape poverty, and have a prosperous life. In the coming time, policy credit will continue to be the pillar of poverty reduction in the province. This is also the strength for Thai Nguyen to not only succeed in poverty reduction but also achieve and exceed many targets of the Resolution of the 20th Provincial Party Congress, completing the goal of "building Thai Nguyen into one of the modern industrial economic centers of the northern midland and mountainous region and the capital Hanoi by 2030".

Mr. Nguyen Quang Thinh, Director of the Thai Nguyen Provincial Bank for Social Policies, said that in the coming time, policy credit activities in the area will closely follow the content of Directive No. 39-CT/TW and the Resolutions and development orientations of the province so that policy credit continues to play an important role, accompanying the economic development and social security in the locality. Mr. Thinh also requested the People's Committees at the provincial and district levels to continue to pay attention to allocating resources from the local budget and other legal capital sources to supplement capital for the Bank for Social Policies to provide loans to poor households and other policy beneficiaries. At the same time, socio-political organizations continue to closely coordinate with the Bank for Social Policies in consolidating and improving the quality of policy credit activities; coordinate with local authorities and functional agencies to effectively integrate capital lending and technology transfer, vocational training, and replication of sustainable poverty reduction models, etc.

Source: https://thoibaonganhang.vn/ky-3-dong-hanh-cung-thai-nguyen-phat-trien-158466.html