Get rich by borrowing from VBSP

Whoever been to hamlet No 3, Tan Thinh commune, Yen Bai city may hear of the story of Mr. Bui Van Doan - a Catholic war invalid going up to wealthy by borrowings from VBSP.

Visiting his house, we cannot help being surprised with a hill of interminable grapefruits, custard-apples, oranges which are specialties of Yen Bai province. Doan was born in Thai Binh province; he volunteered to join the army in to battlefield in 1970 then returned with an invalid degree of 4/4. Because of tough life in his home town, even hard to afford daily food, in 1980, after getting married, he decided to move the family for Yen Bai province. At first, he faced many difficulties, earning daily bread and sustaining 4 to 5 months of hunger each year. He tossed and turned many nights: “I have land, I have health, there is no reason for poverty to tie myself for so long?”. At that time, the Party and the State had policies to entrust land to households for actively cultivation. He discuss with his wife to receive 2 ha of hill around his house and set their mind to transform the exhausted land into hill of fruit-trees and husbandry. At the beginning, as being lack of experience, he planted low-efficient fruit-trees without caring technique which resulted in income deficit. However, he did not fall down, with the encouragement of his wife, Doan decide to start up again. Having heard of Kha Linh grapefruit breed in Dai Minh commune which is a valued specialty in the market, he visited the site to get experience and buy 100 breeds for experiment. After 1 year of endeavor, land does not depress human, trees developed well. Up to now, he has nearly 300 grapefruit trees starting bearing fruit. In parallel with fruit-trees, he also concentrates on developing pig husbandry, at present; he has a herd of 50 pigs, each at about 40 to 50kg. According to Doan, these pigs can be sold in the following month which brings about an income of VND 40 million. Income from fruit-trees and husbandry for Doan family is VND 85 million per year. He confides: “that’s how I could raise 7 children growing and studying and build such a property like this”.

Being asked about capital, he told: “at the beginning I found capital a hard problem. Vietnam Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development lends with high interest rate so income can only cover principal and interest or profit, if there is, may be too little. Thus, I borrowed from Vietnam Bank for the Poor but the loan was so small, only VND 5 million that cannot meet the demand. Fortunately, I heard VBSP had loan for job creation. I came to the Bank and receive enthusiastic support from staff there; they instructed me on building the project, giving me sufficient capital and instructing me way of doing business etc.”

Although the amount of VND 20 million borrowing from VBSP fund for job creation with interest rate of 0.5% per month can not satisfy the demand for capital of Doan’s family, it facilitated conditions for Doan to invest in breeds, caring technique to help his family rising up like they are to day. This can be seen clearly through the assertion of Doan.

Besides giving his mind to develop home economics, Doan takes part in social activities actively. He encourages Catholic households in the hamlet to follow policies of the Party and State, support them with capital, production technique to develop economic together and to reduce poverty. In the role of a chairman of Commune Veteran Association, he usually visits and encourages members, helps them to access preferential loans of VBSP so that they could be as him, rising up from poverty, enriching themselves and in fact, at present, all of Veteran Association members at his commune has escaped poverty.

Dang Binh Minh - VBSP Yen Bai provincial branch