Dong Nai (VNA) – The Vietnam Bankfor Social Policies branch in the southern province of Dong Nai has offered morethan 970 billion VND (43.11 million USD) in loans to nearly 38,000 poor andnear-poor households since 2015, helping thousands escape poverty and earnhigher incomes. 

Huynh Cong Nam, Director of the branch, saidmany households have received loans at monthly interest of 0.55 percent forproduction and trade.  

To ensure that loans are used effectively,the branch worked with authorities to inspect each household, he said, addingthat more than 98 percent of borrowers repaid their loans on schedule.

According to the provincial SteeringCommittee on Poverty Reduction, Dong Nai changed the criteria for poorhouseholds in 2015. Accordingly, each household earning below 1 million VND permonth per person in rural areas or below 1.2 million VND per month per personin urban areas is considered poor.

Near-poor households in rural areas havemonthly average income of 1 – 1.3 million VND per person while those in urbanareas have 1.2 – 1.6 million VND per person.

With such criteria, Dong Nai recorded about20,500 poor households, or 2.89 percent of the total and roughly 8,000near-poor households, accounting for 1.12 percent of the total, in 2015.

Over the last three years, Dong Nai has employedseveral poverty reduction programmes, with preferential credit policies forpoor households the most effective.

Since 2015, nearly 14,000 local householdshave escaped poverty. The rate of poor households is now 0.9 percent while thenumber of near-poor households has fallen from 1.12 percent to 0.59percent.-VNA