Social credit programmes help ethnic minorities escape from poverty

(VBSP News) The Vietnam Bank for Social Policies (VBSP) is expected to poor households in Tra Vinh with clean water and environmental hygiene, especially in rural areas

The Vietnam Bank for Social Policies (VBSP) is expected to poor households in Tra Vinh with clean water and environmental hygiene, especially in rural areas (Illustrative image. Source: VNA)

Social credit programmes have helped ethnic minorities in the Mekong Delta province of Tra Vinh escape poverty in recent years.

According to the Vietnam Bank for Social Policies (VBSP), as of June 30 this year, Thuan Hoa commune in Tra Vinh’s Cau Ngang district carried out 11 preferential credit programmes with loans worth 25 billion VND (1.1 million USD).

A total of 825 ethnic minority households were provided loans of 12.5 billion VND (546,475 USD), accounting for 76 percent of borrowers.

Tra Vinh is home to the Kinh, Khmer and Hoa ethnic groups. It has a population of 1.1 million with 274,425 households, including 88,289 Khmer households (over 32 percent).

Total loans from credit programmes were estimated at nearly 2.2 trillion VND as of June 30, a year-on-year rise of 5.52 percent, fulfilling 94 percent of the annual target.

Some 126,865 poor and nearly-poor households and social policy beneficiaries were provided with average loans of 17 million VND each.

Chairman of the provincial People’s Committee Dong Van Lam proposed the VBSP arrange more loans in the remaining months of the year for households living under the poverty line and support them with clean water and environmental hygiene, especially in rural areas.

In response, a bank representative said the VBSP allocated an additional 40 billion VND (1.7 million USD) for Tra Vinh to provide loans for needy households.

Source VNA