Social policy bank targets 8 percent growth

Hanoi (VNA) – The Vietnam Bank for Social Policy (VBSP) set this year’s credit growth rate of 8 percent, according to the bank’s plan for 2016.

The bank will give priority to provinces with a high rate of poor and near-poor households in accordance with the poverty line for the 2016-2020 period, as well as disadvantaged districts and communes in border areas and islands.

The bank’s General Director Duong Quyet Thang has requested all the VBSP units and branches to strive to meet the demand for loans to poor households and social beneficiaries, while continuing to raise credit quality and paying attention to new credit programmes .

From 2011 to 2015, the VBSP provided preferential loans for 11 million customers, helping 1.9 million households escape poverty. The bank also helped build 5.1 million clean water supply and sanitation facilities in rural areas, as well as 206,000 houses and 6,000 flood-proof houses.

Nearly 1.2 million disadvantaged students were provided loans to pursue study in the review period.

Last year, the bank’s capital reached 148 trillion VND (over 6.4 billion USD), an increase of 56 trillion VND (2.43 billion USD) compared to 2011.

By the end of the 2011-2015 period, total outstanding loans were estimated at 142 trillion VND (nearly 6.2 billion USD) with annual average growth of 11.9 percent.

By the end of 2015, overdue debts accounted for only 0.78 percent of the outstanding loans.-VNA