People attend the workshop on the role of social policy credit in ensuring the livelihood and development of people. (Photo: VNA) Hanoi (VNA) – The Ho Chi Minh National Academy ofPolitics (HCMA) and the Bank for Social Policies on August 16 co-organised aworkshop on the role of social policy credit in ensuring the livelihood anddevelopment of people, especially the poor and other social policy beneficiaries.
Speaking at the workshop, HCMA President and Chairman of theCentral Theory Council Prof. Dr. Nguyen Xuan Thang said that social policycredit is a unique and humane policy that has become one of the pillars in the system of policies on poverty reduction, social security and social welfare in Vietnam.
Social policy credit suits the reality and developmentconditions in Vietnam, meeting the aspirations of the people, especiallylow-income earners who are not eligible for loans from commercial banks, he said.
HCMA President and Chairman of the Central Theory Council Prof. Dr. Nguyen Xuan Thang speaks at the event. (Photo: VNA) Thang affirmed that the provision of social policy credit has produced practicalresults, helping create more jobs and livelihoods for beneficiaries, improve people's lives, promote genderequality, and at the same time contributing to preventing loan sharking and blackcredit, especially in rural, remote, border and ethnic minority areas.
Social policy credit programmes have provided importantresources for the implementation of national target programmes such as the building of new-stylerural areas, sustainable poverty reduction, and socio-economicdevelopment in ethnic minorities areas and mountainous areas, he said.
The official held that social policy credit and commercial creditare two parallel and complementary financial channels with unique characteristics of a socialist-orientedmarket economy, emphasing that both contribute to promoting sustainableeconomic growth and social developments. Most notably, Vietnam's poverty rate reducedfrom nearly 60% in the 1990s to 4.3% in 2022.
According to the General Director of the Bank for SocialPolicies, Duong Quyet Thang, by the end of July 31, 2023, the bank's totalcapital surpassed 324.75 trillion VND (13.56 billion USD), its total outstanding loans under policycredit programmes topped 305.145 trillion VND, with more than 6.6 millionpoor households and policy beneficiaries getting loans.
The bank’s average annual growth rate is about 19%. Along withthe growth of credit scale, the quality of social policy credit continues to be improved. Overdue and frozen debts account for just 0.62% ofthe total outstanding loans.
Over the past 20 years, nearly 44.3 million social policy loans have been provided to poorhouseholds and policy beneficiaries, helping more than 6.5 million households escape poverty and creating jobs for over 6.2 million labourers.
Thanks to the preferential credit, more than 6.5 millionhouseholds escaped from poverty, and more than 6.2 million workers got jobs.
Participants to the workshop pointed out the difficulties andinadequacies in the implementation of social policy credit, resources for implementation and structure of capital sources. They also analyzed and evaluated the system of current legalregulations, mechanisms and policies on social policy credit as well as proposedmeasures to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the Bank for SocialPolicies./.
