Poverty rate drops in Bac Lieu with help from soft loans, vocational training

 

Bac Lieu (VNS/VNA) - The Mekong Delta province of Bac Lieu has reduced the number of poor households to 842, or 1.45 percent of the province’s total households, by providing soft loans, vocational skills, and sustainable livelihood models to the poor.

Doan Kieu Trang, whose family in Gia Rai town’s Phong Tan commune was poor, received help to build a new house and was given a soft loan early this year to breed eel, frogs, chickens and ducks.

Do Minh Thang, chairman of the Gia Rai People’s Committee, said: "Members of poor households who do not have farmland are provided vocational skills to find stable jobs. Members of poor households who have farmland but lack money are provided soft loans for farming."

The town has promoted the role of its Fatherland Front Committee and has called on individuals and philanthropic organisations to help poor households.

The Vietnam Bank for Social Policies’ (VBSP) Bac Lieu branch provided a total of 2.28 trillion VND (99 million USD) soft loans to 110,000 households who are poor or near-poor, or who have had economic difficulty this year.

The province also assigned officials and Party members to help poor households. This year it built 162 houses for poor and near-poor households from funds for social security and the poor.

Individuals and philanthropic organisations built 72 houses for poor, near-poor households and households with economic difficulties this year.

The province has also provided health insurance cards to all poor and near-poor households.

Under the Government’s new multidimensional poverty line for 2022 – 25, the province has 9,640 poor households, accounting for 4.27 percent of total households, and 14,226 near - poor households, accounting for 6.31 percent.

Under the guidelines, a household is poor if it has a monthly per capita income of 1.5 million VND (65 USD) or lower in rural areas and 2 million VND (87 USD) or lower in urban areas.

Pham Van Thieu, chairman of the province People’s Committee, said to reduce poverty sustainably, the province targets reducing its poverty rate by 1 – 1.5 percent next year.

The province will focus on providing jobs for 28,000 labourers who returned to the province from other cities and provinces during the fourth COVID-19 wave in the country. It will also provide jobs for poor labourers and act as a link between companies and the unemployed./.