Policy bank helps lower poverty rate in Central Highlands
Soft loans for poor households from the Vietnam Bank for Social Policies (VBSP) have helped lower the poverty rate in the Central Highlands to 7.34%, according to the Steering Committee for the region.
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Village-based savings and credit groups have been established with thousands of transaction points across communes in the region.
The VBSP has simplified lending policies and procedures for households from ethnic minority groups so that they can have easier access to funds for production.
The Central Highlands province of Lam Dong, the best performer in the region with the poverty rate dropping to only 2%, is home to more than 3,000 village-based savings and credit groups and 147 commune-based transaction points across 12 cities and districts of the province.
The Central Highland Steering Committee proposed that the government should increase capital allocation and credit limits given to disadvantaged households in several credit programmes by the VBSP to meet the growing demand of people in need.
It also urged local authorities and socio-political organisations in the Central Highlands to take a more active role in helping the poor take advantage of the soft loans and pay their debts on schedule.
The outstanding credit balance of all credit programmes targeting beneficiaries of welfare policies in the region totals more than VND12.67 trillion, an increase of 4.2% from the end of 2015.
