Officials of the Farmers' Association and the Bank for Social Policies surveyed the economic model.

"Springboard" from capital sources

Graduated from Hue University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Faculty of Traditional Medicine in 2019, Le Viet Quang, born in 1994, Phu Mau commune, Hue city, decided to return to his hometown to open Quang Thanh Duc Traditional Medicine Clinic. Initially, when opening the clinic, many types of medicine and equipment were still lacking and could not meet the examination needs, so the facility encountered many difficulties. In early 2023, thanks to the introduction of the Women's Union of Phu Mau commune, he accessed a loan source for job creation (GQVL) with a capital of 100 million VND. With capital, he imported many types of medicine and machinery to serve the examination and treatment of diseases.

Mr. Quang shared that the machines are complete so that patients coming for examination and treatment are taken care of more attentively, without having to wait as before. Thanks to that, the number of patients from the locality and other provinces coming for examination is increasing, the family's income is quite stable.

Not only Mr. Quang, recently, we had the opportunity to visit the souvenir business model and check-in of Mr. Huynh Van Thanh at Thuy Xuan incense village (Hue city).

Mr. Thanh's shop is located in a convenient location for tourism development, attracting a lot of customers to shop and check-in. However, to best meet the business activities, he boldly registered for a loan from the Social Policy Bank to invest in more incense making machines, buy more souvenirs, and redecorate the shop to serve tourists when they come to the incense village to visit and check-in. Thanks to that investment, the number of tourists coming to the shop is increasing, contributing to creating jobs for 5 workers.

Ms. Ha Thi Thanh Thuy, Chairwoman of the Farmers' Association of Phu Mau Commune, Hue City, said that among the credit programs that the association is entrusted to lend, the GQVL loan program brings the most practical results. This source of capital not only "hits" the needs of the people with a fairly high loan amount of 50 to 100 million VND, but also helps them realize their business ideas. The implementation also shows that households use the loan capital for the right purpose, mainly investing in business development, livestock and crop cultivation.

Monitoring loan performance

It is undeniable that in recent years, especially when the COVID-19 pandemic broke out, the GQVL loan program of the Vietnam Bank for Social Policies has created leverage to support workers to start businesses and expand production scale.

This source of capital is also increasingly diverse. In addition to the capital allocated from the Central and the province, the City People's Committee and some communes and wards are also interested in allocating a part of the budget to the Social Policy Bank to supplement the capital for GQVL loans. Of which, the city budget has entrusted the Social Policy Bank to lend 24 billion VND. Data from the provincial Social Policy Bank also shows that since the beginning of the year, the credit of the provincial headquarters under the Social Policy Bank branch has lent more than 62 billion VND of GQVL capital, contributing to GQVL for 1,041 workers, raising the total outstanding debt of this program to 203 billion VND, with 4,855 customers still having outstanding debt.

Ms. Nguyen Thi Yen, Deputy Head of the Planning and Credit Department, in charge of credit at the Headquarters, the Provincial Branch of the Vietnam Bank for Social Policies, affirmed that the GQVL loan is one of the programs that contributes to reducing unemployment and ensuring social security in the city. Therefore, the provincial Headquarters credit department always proactively coordinates with the People's Committees of wards, communes, and entrusted organizations to strengthen propaganda and provide information on credit programs for people to easily grasp. Based on the assigned credit capital and loan recovery, the Headquarters credit promotes women's union members, farmers, and youths with feasible business plans. In addition, the supervision of borrowers is also focused on through the implementation of periodic and arising inspections and supervision to avoid the situation of using loans for the wrong purposes.

However, according to Ms. Yen, the capital for loans to support the GQVL has not yet met the needs of workers in the area. According to a survey by the Department of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs of the city, by the end of 2023, the number of unemployed workers of working age was nearly 3,000 people. In addition, in the area, there are still many households working in agriculture, trading, production, small businesses, and fragmented industries who want to change to a new career but lack capital.... Therefore, in addition to the capital allocated from the Central Province, the credit department of the Provincial Headquarters also hopes that the City People's Committee, wards and communes will continue to pay attention to adding more capital entrusted to the Social Policy Bank for lending to GQVL to best serve the economic development needs of the people...

Article and photos: HOANG ANH