Social policy credit: More resources on the journey of poverty reduction

In fact, preferential credit capital from the Vietnam Bank for Social Policies (VBSP) has become a solid foundation to help thousands of poor and near-poor households in Dak Lak invest in production, improve their lives, and escape poverty. With this support, the journey to overcome poverty of tens of thousands of people has been reduced.

Mr. Nguyen Van Tuan's herd of cows (Thanh Phu village, Ia Lop commune) was built from preferential credit capital.

A vivid example of the story of escaping poverty with policy credit is the family of Mr. Nguyen Van Tuan (Thanh Phu village, Ia Lop commune). Mr. Tuan's family came from Ben Tre province (formerly) to build a new economy in the border area since 2006. This area has barren land and lacks water, so growing any crop is not effective, life is difficult and miserable. In 2007, Mr. Tuan's family borrowed 8 million VND of policy credit to buy a pair of breeding cows. Thanks to good care, his family's cows grew well, giving birth every year. He sold the cows to pay the principal and interest and asked for more loans to build barns and improve the land to grow grass to develop livestock farming. To date, his family owns 27 cows. "Thanks to the preferential capital from the State, my family's life is much better than before," Mr. Tuan shared.

Similarly, Mr. Chu Ba Ky's family in Tan An village (Ea Ba commune) also escaped poverty thanks to policy credit capital. Mr. Ky was from Bac Giang (now Bac Ninh province), and came here to start a business in 1995. In the early years, life was extremely difficult. As a war veteran, not resigned to poverty, he registered to borrow capital from the Vietnam Bank for Social Policies to raise cows, raise pigs, and then plant rubber. Later, he switched to developing garden economy. On 6 hectares of his family's land, Mr. Ky is growing durian, macadamia, passion fruit and cassava; in which durian and macadamia are the main crops, while passion fruit and cassava are for short-term use.

“I am currently borrowing 50 million VND from the program for newly escaped poverty households from the Vietnam Bank for Social Policies. This money will help my family hire workers and strengthen the automatic irrigation system for the garden. I hope that in the future, the bank will continue to increase the loan amount so that our people can have conditions to do business and develop the economy more sustainably,” said Mr. Ky.

The participation of local Party committees and authorities in leadership, direction, and policy credit activities is increasingly deeper and wider, creating a strong spread; at the same time, supplementing loan capital for the Provincial Social Policy Bank to synchronously implement preferential credit programs to the people. The beneficiaries of policy credit capital have been expanded. Ms. Tran Thi Tham, Deputy Director of the Dak Lak branch of the Social Policy Bank, said that up to now, the total outstanding policy credit balance of the whole province has reached more than 13,876 billion VND, an increase of more than 1,032 billion VND compared to the end of 2024, the growth rate reached 8.03%; 251,557 customers still have outstanding loans, of which 5,857 poor households, 5,367 near-poor households, and 7,397 newly escaped-poverty households have borrowed capital to invest in production and business. Policy credit capital has been invested in 100% of communes and wards. 100% of poor households, near-poor households, and newly escaped poverty households with needs and meeting conditions have access to policy credit.

Mr. Chu Ba Ky (Ea Ba commune) borrowed policy credit capital to develop garden economy.

Policy credit programs have had a positive impact on poor and near-poor households in disadvantaged areas and ethnic minority areas; integrated with agricultural and forestry extension work, conversion of crops and livestock to increase productivity and income for the poor and other policy beneficiaries, effectively implementing the goal of sustainable poverty reduction. Integrating social policy credit activities with production development orientations to promote regional strengths has brought high economic value and efficiency, contributing to the stable and sustainable development of the rural agricultural economy. The poverty rate in the whole province decreased by an average of 1.67%/year, from 10.09% at the end of 2021 to 5.08% at the end of 2024; the poverty rate of ethnic minority households decreased by an average of 4.47%/year, from 27.49% to 14.06%.

In the coming time, the locality will continue to effectively implement Directive No. 39-CT/TW of the Central Party Secretariat on improving the effectiveness of social policy credit in the new period and Decision No. 1560/QD-TTg dated July 18, 2025 of the Prime Minister on promulgating the Plan to implement Directive No. 39-CT/TW; Plan No. 254-KH/TU dated January 21, 2025 of the Provincial Party Committee on implementing Directive No. 39-CT/TW; at the same time, complete and implement the Social Policy Credit Project for poor households and other policy beneficiaries using local budget capital in Dak Lak province for the period 2026-2030 in accordance with the current situation.

The provincial branch of the Vietnam Bank for Social Policies will promote lending activities according to the plan to increase outstanding loans of credit programs, in which, it will coordinate with departments, branches and related units to grasp the list of poor households, near-poor households, and newly escaped-poverty households to serve as a basis for timely capital disbursement.

Dak Lak aims to reduce the poverty rate by 3% or more by the end of 2025; of which poor households of ethnic minorities will reduce by more than 4%; by 2030, there will be basically no poor households according to multidimensional standards.

Source: https://baodaklak.vn/kinh-te/202510/tin-dung-chinh-sach-xa-hoi-them-nguon-luc-tren-hanh-trinh-giam-ngheo-1ac17c4/