Poverty reduction in central coast area

At present, Nghe An province has three districts in the top list of 62 poorest districts of the country. They are Ky Son, Tuong Duong and Que Phong. The population of the province is more than 3.1 million people, of which the ethnic minority group accounts for a high proportion, especially in mountainous districts, etc. Due to the reason of large area and difficult terrain with density population, VBSP’s Nghe An branch has met many difficulties, mainly in transportation and communication with

With the responsibility as a member in the provincial Steering Committee for Poverty Reduction, the branch always cooperates with other members of the Steering Committee to guide the local level areas, especially in highly mountainous areas in propagandizing, informing full of guidance, policies of the Party and Government as well as specific regulations on supporting poor households in overcoming difficulties. Right from the beginning days of implementing the Resolution 30a, the branch’s leaders focused all their own resources to support the poor districts by assigning a deputy director to be in charge of directing and supervising the operation of transaction offices, then adding VND 285 billion of capital, mainly for three poor districts serving for policy beneficiaries. Thus, as of 30^th October 2009, the outstanding loan of 08 credit programs in three districts of Ky Son, Tuong Duong and Que Phong has reached nearly VND 490 billion with thousands of borrowers, an average of more than VND 12 million per customer.   

As for the lending program for poor households, all three districts have reached VND 324.9 billion, of which lending with the interest rate of 0% under the Resolution 30a is VND 86.785 billion. The highest proportion was Ky Son district with VND 32.685 billion, followings are Tuong Duong district with VND 30.175 billion and Que Phong district with nearly VND 24 billion.

The housing lending program for poor households to build houses, remove dilapidated accommodation under the Decision No. 167 of the Prime Minister is based on the list of eligible households approved by the chairman of the provincial People’s Committee and the disbursed capital resource from VBSP’s headquarters. VBSP’s Nghe An branch has closely collaborated with local authorities and mass organizations from the district level to hamlet level so that making favorable conditions for poor households in understanding the policy and accessing these two lending sources at once. They are capital resource from State budget in the form of grant and loans from the bank, so the borrowers should understand clearly and distinguish the difference between these two resources to use with right purposes and take all full responsibility of a borrower, avoiding the misconception of “Money from the State is all free”. As of the forth quarter of 2009, there have been 3,964 poor households given loans with VND 31.6 billion to build new houses. It is surely that the next Tet holiday of the Tiger Year, there will be hundreds of poor households having new houses to celebrate the new Spring. We had the opportunity to directly visit new bungalows built by the support of VBSP’s loans to poor households of Ms. Lo Thi Xoan, Lo Van Can in Tam Thai commune, Tuong Duong district as a proof of that.

Districts in the province are almost poor districts; especially in high mountainous and remote areas with lots of ethnic minority who are in low intellectual level, therefore, the branch always implement supporting policy to develop human resource for ethnic minorities that is directed by the Party and the Government. Reducing the gap between the rich and the poor together with shortening and gradually removing the gap in intellectual level among highly mountainous districts, communes and plain areas are always the major target of the branch. With the lending program for disadvantaged students, until now, the outstanding loan of the branch has reached nearly VND 1,200 billion, of which in the 1^st semester of school year 2009-2010,  the branch disbursed nearly VND 200 billion of loans for approximately 100 thousand students in poor households. The situation of dropping out of school no longer exist. However, at present the capital scale cannot meet the requirement on both number of borrowers and lending target compared to the unstable price situation.

As for lending with supporting interest rate under the Decision 579 of the Prime Minister, the branch actively complies with the guidelines of VBSP for incurred loans. As a result, there have been 88 thousand customers getting loans with outstanding loans of around VND 710 billion, of which VND 340 billion for poor households, VND 19 billion for job creation, VND 204 billion for disadvantaged students, VND 31 billion for housing loans, VND 35 billion for safe water and environment sanitation, VND 8 billion for workers with limited term abroad, VND 72 billion for business households in disadvantaged areas, etc,.

In the context of global financial downturn, domestic economic slowdown, difficult living condition in community, etc,. VBSP’s support for policy beneficiaries is really a great value as the sayings “One piece of food while hungry equal to a big box of food while full”. The preferential loans all over the country in general and in Nghe An province in particular have really become a life-line for the poor making contribution with community to dealing with all challenges and striving to get rich. And also thanks to the efficiency of lending programs, the operation of the branch has developed quickly and positively both in scale and quality of annual credit. With well managing over VND 3,046 billion of capital resource to implement  nine lending programs assigned by the Government, the branch has reached the outstanding loan of VND 2,972 billion with more than 290 thousand customers. 

There has been many difficulties and challenges ahead but in an over view, the credit quality of VBSP’s Nghe An branch over the years, especially after one year of implementing the Resolution 30a of the Government and the Decisions of the Prime Minister on poverty reduction is a great significance with high recognition and praise.