Policy Credit (Part 2)

Over the past ten years, the Provincial Party Committee, People's Council and People's Committee of Tra Vinh province have issued many Resolutions and policy mechanisms to effectively implement policy credit programs in the area. Timely support from popular credit policies has created motivation for the poor and other policy beneficiaries to overcome adversity; arousing the people's will to be self-reliant, self-reliant and aspiration to rise up.

The "bridges" connecting the Party's will and the people's hearts

In order to transfer policy credit capital to the right beneficiaries and improve credit quality, the provincial branch of the Social Policy Bank has implemented the entrusted lending method through 4 socio-political organizations, including: Women's Union, Farmers' Association, Veterans' Association and Youth Union. This method helps socio-political organizations integrate credit programs with agricultural and industrial promotion programs, and transfer of science and technology into production, etc. Thereby, helping people use loans effectively.

The Farmers' Association is one of four political-communal organizations that carry out entrusted activities. Up to now, the outstanding balance of the Association's entrusted credit policy programs is over 1,373 billion VND through 841 savings and loan groups, creating conditions for nearly 40,000 members to access investment capital to develop production and create jobs.

To use loan capital effectively, the Association at all levels has coordinated with relevant units and localities to organize training, consultation, and transfer of science and technology to over 587,000 farmer members.

According to the Permanent Vice President of the Tra Vinh Farmers' Association, Quang Thanh Tu, the delegation activities have contributed to enhancing the position and role of the Association, creating conditions for the Association to gather and unite farmers, promoting increasingly effective emulation movements, especially the movement "Farmers compete in good production and business, unite to help each other get rich and reduce poverty sustainably". From preferential loans, many farmers have boldly changed the crop structure, bringing about very high efficiency compared to old farming practices.

The model of growing seedless lemons for export to the Netherlands of Thanh Chi Cooperative, Huyen Hoi Commune, Cang Long District is a testament to the effective use of policy credit capital by farmers to enrich themselves on their homeland. Through the Provincial Farmers' Association, the cooperative has 19 members who have access to preferential loans from the Policy Bank with a total amount of VND950 million to invest in growing seedless lemons.

Farmer Kim Hoai Phuong, Huyen Hoi commune, Cang Long district was given a loan of 50 million VND from policy credit sources through the Huyen Hoi Commune Farmers' Association to invest in growing seedless lemons.

Farmers are provided with technical support and guidance on the process of planting and caring for seedless lemon trees to ensure export standards. In addition, thanks to the close connection in production and consumption between farmers, cooperatives and enterprises, the output of the cooperative is very stable. Currently, on average, each hectare of seedless lemon trees, cooperative members earn a profit of over 400 million VND/year, 7-8 times higher than growing rice on the same land.

Standing Vice Chairman of the Tra Vinh Farmers' Association, Quang Thanh Tu, said that consulting, guiding the construction and replication of effective production and business models, helping each other escape poverty and strive to become rich legitimately is one of the key activities that the Associations at all levels include in the annual program of activities. At the end of the year, the Association organizes a summary, evaluation and reward for good production and business models, effective business at each level from the provincial to the grassroots level. In recent times, many effective production models of farmers have contributed to helping the locality complete the criteria for building new rural areas and developing the local economy and society.

According to Chairman of Tra Vinh Provincial People's Committee Le Van Han, implementing Directive 40 of the Secretariat, over the past 10 years, Tra Vinh province has issued many specific policies to support loans for poor and near-poor households and policy beneficiaries to solve employment, improve housing, living and studying conditions for students, support investment in production development... Every year, the province prioritizes allocating local budget capital to the Social Policy Bank to supplement loan capital for poor households and policy beneficiaries. To date, the whole province has entrusted over 633 billion VND, accounting for 13.32% of the total capital of the Provincial Social Policy Bank Branch. Thanks to that, credit capital in the province has continuously grown to meet the borrowing needs of poor households, near-poor households, households that have just escaped poverty and other policy beneficiaries.

"Support" for aspirations to rise

After 10 years of implementing Directive No. 40-CT/TW, the Vietnam Bank for Social Policies, Tra Vinh branch, has provided loans to 407,424 poor households and policy beneficiaries with a total amount of over VND 8,524 billion; of which, the total outstanding balance of policy credit programs reached VND 4,547 billion, an increase of nearly VND 3,000 billion and 3 times higher than in 2014.

From 2014 to 2023, Tra Vinh province has reduced the poverty rate from 10.66% to 1.19%. Credit programs have also created jobs for over 61,000 workers; of which, nearly 3,500 workers have received loans to work abroad for a limited period; helped over 10,500 students in difficult circumstances to receive loans to study; supported the construction and renovation of nearly 162,000 clean water and environmental sanitation works in rural areas, built over 10,500 houses for poor households, near-poor households, and policy families; helped 141 households borrow capital to build and buy social housing according to Decree No. 100/2015/ND-CP of the Government; created conditions for 11 enterprises to borrow capital to pay for the suspension of work for nearly 1,500 workers...

Policy credit capital has contributed to reducing 53,000 poor households in the past 10 years; ensuring social security, building new rural areas, and developing local socio-economy.

Directive No. 40-CT/TW has created a profound change in the awareness and actions of Party committees, authorities, and socio-political organizations; it is a key and regular task in the programs and plans of agencies and units. Credit capital helps realize the dream of "settling down and making a living" of tens of thousands of poor households, thanks to support in building solid, spacious houses and creating sustainable livelihoods; reducing the number of students dropping out of school due to financial difficulties; many households have been able to borrow capital to build facilities for daily life.

Chairman of Tra Vinh Provincial People's Committee Le Van Han affirmed: social policy credit is one of the "pillars" of poverty reduction, job creation, social security and new rural construction policies in the locality. This policy has met the needs and aspirations of the people, contributing to improving the living standards of Tra Vinh people, helping the province basically complete the task of new rural construction.

To date, 85/85 communes in the province have met the new rural standards, 51 advanced new rural communes, 9 model new rural communes; 9/9 districts, towns and cities have been recognized by the Prime Minister as meeting the standards and completing the task of building new rural areas. Cau Ke and Tieu Can districts have met the advanced new rural standards.

The material and spiritual life of the people has improved significantly; especially in the Khmer ethnic minority area, there has been a clear change. It is estimated that by the end of 2024, the province's average income per capita will reach 93.78 million VND/person/year, 3.3 times higher than in 2014 and 128 times higher than when the province was re-established.

This result is the premise for the locality to realize its aspiration of "Building a prosperous and happy Tra Vinh province, becoming a leading developed province in the Mekong Delta region before 2030".

Source: https://thoibaonganhang.vn/tin-dung-chinh-sach-bai-2-158895.html