Part 2 - Building Trust, Multiplying Happiness

The support capital from the Vietnam Bank for Social Policies (VBSP), with preferential interest rates and simple procedures, provided timely and well-targeted investments. This has helped many households gain the resources and confidence to overcome difficulties, achieve sustainable poverty alleviation, improve their family’s prosperity, and contribute to building a more prosperous and beautiful homeland.

Activities VBSP Don Duong District at Commune Transaction Points

Remarkable Stories of Poverty Alleviation

Mr. Ya Hem, a 49-year-old from the Ro Glai ethnic group in Tam Bo commune, Di Linh district, has been a loyal customer of VBSP for the past 10 years. Over time, he has received loans of VND 8 million, 25 million, 30 million, and 50 million.

With his hardworking nature and determination to improve his family’s economic situation in Di Linh, combined with preferential loans, Mr. Ya Hem transformed his low-yield coffee trees into a high - quality coffee garden. This shift has provided his family with a stable income, allowing them to build a spacious home and provide education for their three children. Beyond escaping poverty, Mr. Ya Hem has reinvested his annual coffee harvest earnings to purchase an additional 1.7 hectares of coffee plantation, further ensuring financial stability for his family.

Di Linh district, known as the largest coffee-growing area in Lam Dong province, has seen continuous improvement in coffee quality and yield, thanks to grafting and garden renovation. For poor and near-poor households, as well as other policy beneficiaries, preferential loans from VBSP have been a critical resource for improving coffee quality and increasing incomes, contributing to rise out of poverty. With the active participation of the entire political system, policy capital in Di Linh has been promptly distributed to the right beneficiaries, helping thousands of households escape poverty and build better lives. However, many people still need access to these preferential loans.

In Hiep An commune, Duc Trong district, Mrs. Phan Thi Thuy's family borrowed VND 40 million from VBSP to develop livestock farming, including cows, pigs, and chickens. Utilizing these funds effectively, her family's economic situation has steadily improved. Previously, her family’s income was unstable, relying solely on agriculture. Taking advantage of the favorable climate and land suitable for growing grass for livestock, they expanded into cattle farming. Mrs. Thuy reinvested her earnings into farming, increasing her family’s annual income.

Mrs. Thuy shared that policy loans not only provided the financial resources needed for investment but also gave her family confidence and motivation to work harder and escape poverty. She hopes for additional loan support to expand their livestock operations, further increasing their income and ensuring better education for their children.

Mrs. Thuy’s story is one of many families in Duc Trong district having utilized policy credit effectively. This has contributed to reducing the poverty rate and near-poverty rate in the area, playing a key role in the development of prosperous rural communities.

The high-tech melon farm of Mr. Nguyen Van Truong’s family in Hiep An commune, Duc Trong district

The Extended Arm of VBSP

Since the issuance of Directive No. 40-CT/TW in 2015, Lam Dong has ensured that 100% of local People's Committee leaders at the commune level participate in the Board of Directors of the district-level VBSP. This has enhanced the role and responsibility of Party committees, local authorities, the Vietnam Fatherland Front, and other mass organizations in social policy credit. Through the dissemination of Directive No. 40-CT/TW and Conclusion No. 06-KL/TW, a high level of consensus has been achieved in the understanding and actions of leaders, officials, Party members, and citizens regarding the critical role of social policy credit in poverty reduction, job creation, new rural construction, and social welfare.

In implementing Government Decree No. 78/2002/ND-CP, VBSP's provincial branch has been directly lending to beneficiaries and delegating certain tasks to mass organizations. These organizations have actively promoted Party policies and State laws on social policy credit to all citizens, especially the poor and other policy beneficiaries.

Monthly, mass organizations entrusted by VBSP receive updates on new credit policies directly at the commune, then communicate them to borrowers during Savings and Credit Group meetings. To date, over 168,000 Savings and Credit Groups have been established in villages and residential areas, acting as the "extended arm" that delivers policy credit to the poor and other policy beneficiaries.

The district-level VBSP Board of Directors, in collaboration with VBSP, organizes monthly commune transaction points safely and supports Savings and Credit Groups in operating efficiently. As of June 30, 2024, entrusted loans through mass organizations totaled VND 5,969 billion, managed by 2,466 Savings and Credit Groups, with over 100,000 clients - a 176.98% increase from 2014 - accounting for 99.88% of the total outstanding loans.

Annual training sessions are held for commune-level People's Committee leaders, officials from entrusted organizations and Savings and Credit Group managers. Alongside raising borrower awareness of proper fund utilization and repayment schedules, group managers provide technical guidance to enhance loan efficiency.

Over the past decade, 2,800 loan accounts have been proposed for risk management, including 790 rescheduled and 2,010 written off. These efforts have helped maintain and improve credit quality. By June 30, 2024, overdue and frozen debts stood at VND 8.3 billion, or 0.14% of total outstanding loans, down 42.88% from 2014.

VBSP's 142 commune transaction points operate monthly, even on weekends and holidays, under the principle of "home service, disbursement at the commune," reducing travel costs and familiarizing residents with banking services.

Directive of “The Party’s Will, the People’s Heart”

According to VBSP Lam Dong Provincial Branch’s leaders, Directive No. 40-CT/TW has profoundly impacted social policy credit. Local authorities have prioritized allocating resources and facilities to improve VBSP's operational capacity.

Local governments actively mobilize and allocate budget capital for VBSP to support credit programs aligned with local economic restructuring, job creation, and sustainable poverty reduction.

Over the past decade, more than 317,000 households in Lam Dong have benefited from loans totaling over VND 11,511 billion. As of June 30, 2024, outstanding loans across 17 credit programs reached VND 5,976 billion, a 176.37% increase compared to 2014, with loans supporting 101,177 households, representing 28.15% of the province's total.

Annual loan growth averages 10%, with outstanding loans in new rural construction areas amounting to VND 4,574 billion (76.54%) and VND 2,112 billion for ethnic minority households (35.34%).

Le Hoa – Anh Nguyet – Van Bau