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A resident receives low interest loan for employment support at the Bank for Social Policies in District 12, HCMC |
If the draft resolution is passed, the southern metropolis will be able to further improve the quality of its sustainable poverty reduction program, raising the poverty line of Ho Chi Minh City twice as high as the national standard set by Resolution 31 of the Politburo.
Humanitarian policy
After many years, seven houses for rent of Mrs. Nguyen Thi Viet in Ho Chi Minh City’s District 12 have seriously deteriorated. She needs an estimate of more than VND150 million for repair. Over the years, Ms. Viet's family has saved more than VND50 million. While she wanted to renovate the house, she was informed that the Bank for Social Policies (VBSP) has loans to support poverty reduction and job creation.
Ms. Viet soon wrote an application for a loan of VND100 million and the bank disbursed the money immediately. Receiving the amount of money, elderly Viet was delighted she and her husband are living on the rent of these houses. The renovation of the houses for rent will help ensure income for the woman and her husband while tenants can stay in good houses.
Like Ms. Viet, 30 other households in Tan Hung Thuan Ward were provided VND 1.75 billion in loans.
Policies to support poverty reduction and create jobs have been implemented in districts citywide and in Thu Duc City.
According to the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs, the preferential credit policy for loans to support poverty reduction and loans for job creation has helped more than 435,000 poor and near-poor households escape poverty. Along with that, it has created jobs for more than 377,000 workers.
Ms. Pham Thi Thanh Hien, Chairwoman of the People's Committee of Cu Chi District, said that the local administrations pay much attention to the poverty reduction program.
VBSP in Cu Chi outlying district has implemented various programs including a loan program to support poverty reduction and a loan program to support job creation, job maintenance and expansion which are considered two key programs of VBSP.
By the end of March 2023, the program has given a total outstanding loan of more than VND 300 billion to 6,580 households for job creation and job maintenance in the district while more than VND155 billion was disbursed for nearly 3,370 households for poverty reduction.
The city has developed an urban government, contributing to improving the effectiveness and efficiency of State management from 2022, so the municipal People's Committee decided to add financial sources for loans to support poverty reduction in 16 districts. It is expected that VND192,000 billion will be added to provide loans for people from 2022 to 2025.
According to the Ministry of Planning and Investment, with the policy of not letting the poor and workers in need of funds for their business plans and debt repayment fail to access the city's preferential credit sources, the above-mentioned addition of capital also helps fight loan sharks in the city.
In addition, this policy also contributes to the completion of the city's poverty reduction target that by the end of 2025, there will be no poor households according to the national poverty line, and less than 0.5 percent of poor households according to the city poverty line. It is expected that by the end of 2025, the remaining poverty rate will be 0.13 percent.
Meeting people's capital needs
According to Chairwoman of the People's Committee of Cu Chi District Pham Thi Thanh Hien, from the above two sources of capital, every year there are more than 1,000 poor households, near-poor households, and newly-escaped households in the district have the opportunity to access preferential capital and escape their income-based poverty threshold.
The programs also create, maintain and expand jobs for more than 2,000 workers.
Thereby, people have the opportunity to increase their income and improve their lives. In particular, preferential capital support has helped poor households and policy beneficiaries not to ask for loans from loan sharks when they face financial difficulties.
Over the past time, in order to manage preferential loans for poverty reduction and job creation, the People's Committee of Ho Chi Minh City has issued regulations on the management and use of local budgets entrusted by VBSP to support loans. The city annually provides capital to districts, Thu Duc City to lend to support poverty reduction and create jobs, contributing to improving people's lives.
Regarding this policy, leaders of the Ministry of Planning and Investment also commented that many socio-economic changes and complicated development of natural disasters and epidemics will lead to an increase in the unemployment rate; accordingly, poor households are likely at risk of falling back into poverty. Therefore, maintaining and developing the source of preferential loans is needed to help the poor, policy beneficiaries, and employees to have a stable income and they can escape poverty sustainably.
