Implementation of directive on social policy credit reviewed

(LSO) – The Lang Son provincial Party Committee held a meeting on August 21 to review the five-year implementation of the Party Central Committee’s Secretariat’s Directive No. 40-CT/TW, dated November 22, 2014, on enhancing the Party’s leadership over credit for social policy beneficiaries.

The event was attended by Hoang Van Nghiem, Standing Vice Secretary of the provincial Party Committee and Chairman of the provincial People’s Council; Le Thi Duc Hanh, Deputy Director General of the Vietnam Bank for Social Policies (VBSP); Duong Xuan Huyen, Vice Chairman of the provincial People’s Committee and head of the representative board of the Board of Directors of the VBSP’s Lang Son branch; along with representatives of the provincial People’s Council, the National Assembly deputies’ delegation of Lang Son, and local agencies and localities.

After five years of realising Directive 40, local authorities have created favourable conditions for social policy credit activities and allocated part of provincial- and district-level budgets to supplement loans for poor families and other policy beneficiaries. In tandem with loans, they have also provided training and transferred technological advances to borrowers to help use loans effectively.

Hoang Van Nghiem, Standing Vice Secretary of the provincial Party Committee and Chairman of the provincial People’s Council, speaks at the meeting.

As of June 30 this year, the capital for implementing the preferential credit policy had approximated 2.87 trillion VND (123.87 million USD), up about 977 billion VND from 2014. Total outstanding loans of the 15 preferential credit programmes had reached nearly 2.82 trillion VND with 70,827 borrowers, growing 930.8 billion VND in the five years.

Over the last five years, 150,314 poor households and other policy beneficiaries have received loans from the VBSP. Social policy credit has helped achieve sustainable poverty reduction, build new-style rural areas and stabilise local residents’ lives. As a result, nearly 30,000 households have escaped from poverty, helping to bring the household poverty rate in Lang Son from 29.5 percent in 2015 to 15.83 percent in 2018. More than 6,000 students have gained loans to continue their studying, 7,900 people got jobs, and nearly 60,000 clean water supply and environmental hygiene facilities been built or repaired.

Addressing the meeting, Hoang Van Nghiem, Standing Vice Secretary of the provincial Party Committee and Chairman of the provincial People’s Council, highly valued the Directive 40 implementation outcomes in Lang Son.

He asked administrations and socio-political organisations at all levels to press on with the implementation. Meanwhile, the People’s Councils and Committees of the province and district-level localities need to continue sparing part of local budgets to supplement loans.

Vice Chairman of the provincial People’s Committee Duong Xuan Huyen presents merit certificates to the collectives and individuals with outstanding performance in the Directive 40 realisation.

The local committees of the Vietnam Fatherland Front and socio-political organisations need to continue working with the VBSP to boost communications so that credit policies can reach all people. The representative board of the Board of Directors of the VBSP’s Lang Son branch has to keep giving consultations in terms of social policy credit to the provincial Party Committee, People’s Council and People’s Committee.

Additionally, the Lang Son branch of the VBSP needs to focus on mobilising capital to effectively carry out credit programmes while improving operations of its transaction points, Nghiem said.

On this occasion, the provincial People’s Committee granted merit certificates to 15 collectives and 11 individuals with outstanding performance in realising Directive 40. The VBSP also commended five collectives and eight individuals for their achievements in this regard./.