Enhancing quality of loan programs for policy beneficiaries in Mekong Delta region

The Government Office has recently announced the conclusion made by Deputy Prime Minister Vuong Dinh Hue, head of the Steering Committee for the Southwestern Region, at a recent conference, which reviewed five years (2012-2016) of implementing a project on enhancing the quality of loan programs for policy beneficiaries in the Mekong Delta region.

Accordingly, in order to improve the efficiency of loan programs, implement well social security policies and enable the poor and other policy beneficiaries to sustainably escape poverty, the deputy PM asked ministries, sectors, cities, provinces, socio-political organizations and the VBSP to focus on accelerating communication work to raise public awareness of the Party and State’s guidelines on preferential credit policies, and to prioritize the allocation of resources to support the people in economic development, poverty reduction and new rural development.

He hailed the VBSP as the Party's and State’s tool to implement preferential credit policies, and as a bank of the people, by the people and for the people.

In three to five years’ time, all policy beneficiaries will be able to access preferential credit policies if they are eligible and have the demand, contributing to repelling, towards eliminating, informal credit and underground loans, particularly in rural areas, and ensuring social order and safety and a stable environment for economic development, Deputy PM Hue insisted.

He urged the growth of outstanding loans to policy beneficiaries to match with the common outstanding loan growth of the economy, the State budget’s support capabilities and the VBSP’s capital self-mobilization.

With a network of nearly 39,600 savings groups and borrowing teams in hamlets and residential groups, and over 1,580 commune transaction locations, over the past five years (2012-2016), branches of the VBSP in the Mekong Delta region have transmitted approximately VND33.4 trillion (US$1.47 billion) of 17 loan programs to over 2.3 million poor households and policy beneficiaries, helping nearly 386,000 households to rise from poverty.

Loan programs to policy beneficiaries over the past years have brought stability to rural areas and rural people in the Mekong Delta region, and have strongly affected the region’s sustainable poverty reduction and new rural development programs. These loan programs have contributed to reducing the rate of poor households (according to the 2012-2016 poverty line) in the region from 10% in 2012 to 8.46% in 2016 (according to multidimensional poverty line).

                                                                                                                            By Vien Nhu