Big step forward in awareness and action

Throughout the history of building and defending the country, Vietnamese ancient leaders have always paid attention to the lives of the people and make it a great and very meaningful tradition of our nation.

Following the tradition, right after the successful revolution, in early 1946, in an interview with foreign jounalists, President Ho Chi Minh said: "I have only one desire, an ultimate desire, which is to make our country completely independent, our people  completely free, have food, clothes and education".

To fulfill the wish of “Uncle Ho”, the Party and the State have issued and constantly supplemented and improved the system of guidelines and policies on hunger eradication and poverty reduction. Directive No. 40-CT/TW of the 11th Party Central Committee Secretariat on strengthening the Party's leadership on social policy credit dated  November 22, 2014 is a major policy to mobilize the power, the participation of the entire political system, the whole society and the poor themselves to effectively implement poverty reduction.

This year, the “yellow” season came earlier than usual on terraced fields in the mountainous district of Mu Cang Chai. The fruitful crop made people in this utmost difficult district excited and even more excited when their daily life get better after the local party committee, local authorities and VBSP join together to drastically implement the Directive No. 40-CT/TW of the 11th Party Central Committee Secretariat on strengthening the Party's leadership on social policy credit.

The results after 5 years implementation of the Directive No.40 have been proving that it’s a proper policy of the Party, creating a breakthrough from awareness to action of the socio-political system in terms of the meaning, role of social policy credit in the economic development of each locality and the whole country.

Under the guidance of the Party and the Government, the timely advice of the State Bank of Vietnam and VBSP in implementation of Directive No. 40, all Ministries, agencies, local committees and authorities have made social policy credit become an important part of their action plan. The Vietnam Fatherland Front and mass organizations firmly carried out communication, implementation and supervision of policy credit. Along with that is the participation of millions of party members in the role of a bridge to bring policy into life. The result of that consensus is a vivid picture that makes social policy credit more advanced and effective.

Che Tao commune in Mu Cang Chai district, is the most remote and disadvantaged mountainous commune of Yen Bai province. Recent investment in infrastructure has shortened the travel time from the district center to this commune. Commodity economy in combination with the Party's and Government's policy credit has been transforming people's awareness here while The Directive No. 40 further strengthened the Party’s supervision on social policy credit for sustainable poverty reduction. Che Tao commune’s Party Committee and People's Committee consider this an important political task and a responsibility, so the commune drastically directed policy credit to become more and more effective.

With a loan of VND 15 million, Mr. Giang A Sinh's family in this commune spent VND 10 million to buy a cow and VND 5 million to invest in barn and grass. Cows were raised well, reproducing one, two, three and then four calves. During peak time, Mr. Sinh's family had 15 cows. He sold 1/3 of the herd to repay the bank loan and some family’s needs and kept the rest for raising. Thanks to the Government's preferential capital, from a poor household, Mr. Giang A Sinh's family has escaped from persistent poverty.

I am a leader of a Savings and Credit Group. For the others to know how to use the loans as effectively as I do, they have to learn how to raise cattle, plant grass and build cages from me. I watch over the group members, if anyone borrows a loan, he must be able to get better.

In the process of achieving the goal of sustainable poverty reduction and social security, social policy credit since the issuance of the Directive No. 40 has been improved to be more and more effective, especially in areas facing difficulties in livelihoods under negative impacts of nature. Therefore, the influence of the Directive No. 40 could be more clearly seen here.

Duc Thinh commune, Duc Tho district, Ha Tinh province is an example. Each party member in his/her position is assigned a specific task. Especially, since the Chairman of the Commune People's Committee became a member of the Representative Unit of the Board of Directors, the drastically determination has become a key factor in the implementation process.

Before each monthly meeting, I asked the representatives of entrusted organizations to check, review the documents, outstanding loans and loan utilization for the right purposes to effectively manage capital for the bank.

“An important lesson is that cadre must know how to guide the people. In Ha Tinh province, there are residential area with residential group and a Development Board, closely connect with the community. And this matter, if integrated with resources involved, the activities will be more effective. From Ha Tinh people's commitee point of view, helping the poor escape from poverty is a result of leadership and guidance of cadre.”

Today is the New Year of Cham ethnic people. Officers from VBSP’s Ninh Phuoc District visited Mr. Luu Quang Bong's house. The better life made his family happy to welcome the credit officers who have helped his family to escape from poverty sustainably.

As a literature teacher, he understood that investing in education is the only way to escape from poverty sustainably. Using policy capital, he paid for his 4 children to complete schooling.

Our four children realized that their family was so disadvantaged, so they were very studious. Three of them went to college and one learned preschool pedagogy. Without the Party and the State’s support, our family could not afford to our children’s study.

In Hai Lang lowland district, the resident's life depends mainly on two crops, so it is extremely difficult for their children to go to college. Amidst many families letting their children quit school to go to the South of Vietnam for work, Mrs. Nguyen Thi Anh and her husband were still determined to help their children to go to school because they understand that learning is the only way to escape from poverty sustainably.

Thanks to the timely support of policy credit for students, she nurtured four children to become successful people, have good jobs, and do not have to rely on agriculture.

When we got married, both family sides were very poor. I suffered so badly, I was determined to struggle to afford my children schooling at any cost.

Thanks to the Party, the State and the VBSP, I can borrow money to buy land for coffee planting to raise my children during their childhood. After they grew up, VBSP loans gave me the ability to raise four children to attend school properly.

Social policy credit since the Party's Directive No. 40 has got utmost care of committees and authorities here. The responsibility is now very clear, officers and party members come directly to each household to discuss appropriate production plans, give  instructions on loan’s procedures to the borrowers.

I think the biggest success is the join of Party Committee and authorities, they see it as an opportunity for each locality, from the commune to the district level, to help the resident’s life be happy and prosper. The Directive No. 40 is effective not only in terms of economy for the poor, but in terms of socio-politic as well. Besides, it also increases the people's faith in the Party and the State.

In Co Loa commune, Dong Anh district, Hanoi city, the life of residents in previous years still faced many difficulties. In 2014, per capita income was only VND 28.9 million. At present, the whole commune per capita is estimated at VND 54 million/person/year.

In the upcoming plan, Co Loa plans to set a target of all households to escape from poverty sustainably; thanks to  policy capital, the people have conditions to develop their economy, raise their income and the life of the people in the commune is getting better, making an important contribution to the goal of sustainable poverty reduction and ensuring social security.

The State invests in these loans very well, helping farmers to have better conditions for economic development and higher family income. I also expect the State to lend more so that people can earn more income.

“Plowing at noon

Sweating like rain on the field”

For thousands of years, the hardships of people in poor rural areas have come to the proverb. 5 years of implementing the Directive No.40, the lives of many people are no longer associated with hardship and in many places that proverb is forgotten.

It can be said that under the Party's leadership, social policy credit is considered as one of the creative, meaningful and suitable solutions in the context of Vietnam, making an important contribution to the effective implementation of guidelines, policies, goals and tasks set by the Party and the State on poverty reduction, job creation, human resource development, social security, political stability and socio-economic development in line with socialist orientation.

Policy credit activities are always paid attention by the Party, especially the Party Central Committee Secretariat with issuance of the Directive No. 40 to direct the committees, authorities, Vietnam Fatherland Front and mass organizations to focus on improving the effectiveness of social policy credit. I also appreciate that ministries, agencies and localities are increasingly aware of the role and position of social policy credit. Policy credit is an important channel, although its capital is not large, its practical effect is very large, the poverty reduction target is the ordinance of the National Assembly as well as the People's Councils of localities.

Up to now, the total policy credit capital reached VND 226,560 billion; Total outstanding loans reached VND 219,565 billion.

In the five years of implementing the Directive No. 40, more than 12 million turns of households have been granted with policy loans, of which 2.1 million households have successfully escaped from poverty; built over 7.3 million clean water and rural environmental sanitation works; more than 1.3 million people were granted loans to create jobs; 24 thousand turns of people borrowed loans for labor export; 345 thousand turns of students borrowed loans to continue studying; built over 140 thousand houses for poor households and policy beneficiaries.

For a developing and low-middle-income country, the above statistic show great efforts and care for the poor and social policy beneficiaries of the Party and the State. Not all countries in the world can do this, including those with high levels of development as well as higher income levels than ours.

After 05 years of implementing the Directive No. 40, we have also achieved impressive results. Total additional capital sources for policy credit activities reached VND 77 trillion; in which, from the State budget, it reached over VND 10 trillion, from local governments at all levels reached over VND 11 trillion and from support through deposits of other banks, especially state-owned commercial banks of the State reached over VND 41 trillion and from other organizations and businesses reached over VND 21 trillion. These figures represent the fierce participation of the entire political system and society.

Sustainable poverty reduction remains a major challenge in the context of rapid and extensive integration that is widening the gap between rich and poor income. Poverty can always come back due to  natural disasters, floods. Central budget capital for poverty reduction has been prioritized by the Party, National Assembly and the Government, but it’s still limited in comparison with the needs of the poor and other policy beneficiaries.

Therefore, more drastic and effective implementation of the Directive No. 40 of the Party Central Committee's Secretariat in the coming time is still an important factor in the implementation of social policy credit to maximize the effectiveness of the capital while gathering more human and capital resources from localities and businesses, mass organizations and every citizen in sustainable poverty reduction so that no one is left behind in the development process of the country./.