Belgian daily newspaper "Le Soir" on July 3 praised the role Vietnamese women and the Vietnam Women's Union (VWU) have played in the country's poverty reduction programme.

Writer Martine Dubuisson who recently visited Vietnam to inspect Belgian-funded projects said all the projects have paid off. Since 1997, the Belgian government has provided credits for the VWU to launch small projects in seven provinces and cities in the first phase and expanded them to 17 localities in the second phase. As a result, 202 communes have benefited from the projects with total loan capital of up to VND50 billion. All women who got loans to develop production have improved their lives.

The paper said the Vietnamese government has highly valued the results of the Belgian-funded projects and encouraged the VWU to effectively implement the following phases.