Seventy organisations, businesses and individuals, who have made significant contributions to supporting the disadvantaged people through the National Fund for the Poor and other social welfare programmes during the 3 years of 2017-2019, were honoured at a meeting held in Hanoi on October 1, 2019 by the Central Steering Committee for the National Target Programs and the Vietnam Fatherland Front (VFF) Central Committee. Mr. Vuong Dinh Hue - Member of the Politburo, Deputy Prime Minister, Head of the National Target Programs’ Steering Committee chaired and delivered a keynote speech at the Meeting.
Also attending the Program were: Mr. Tran Thanh Man, Secretary of the the Party Central Committee, and President of the VFF Central Committee; Mr. Dao Ngoc Dzung - Member of the Party Central Committee, Minister of Labor - Invalids and Social Affairs of Vietnam; Mr. Hau A Lenh - Member of the Party Central Committee, Vice Chairman - General Secretary of Vietnam Fatherland Front Central Committee; Mr. Dao Minh Tu - Deputy Governor of the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV), along with leaders of various ministries, agencies and representatives of organizations, businesses and individuals who have been actively supporting the “Fund for the Poor”.
In the past 3 years from 2017 - 2019, the Standing Committee of the VFF Central Committee in coordination with the SBV, the Ministry of Labor - Invalids and Social Affairs, the Ministry of Information and Communications, Vietnam Television (VTV) and other relevant agencies have helped the Central Steering Committee for National Target Programs and the VFF Central Committee to organize the live television program themed "The whole country joining hands for the poor"
Speaking at the meeting, Deputy Prime Minister Vuong Dinh Hue emphasized that in recent years, the Party, the State and the VFF have always paid highest attention to and care for social security affairs, improve social welfare for policy beneficiaries, people with meritorious services and the poor following the objective "Wealthy People, a Strong Nation, a Democratic, Fair and Civilized Society ". In addition to State budget expenditures, the Government has also provided policy credit through Vietnam Bank for Social Policies (VBSP), providing loans for poverty reduction worth more than VND 200 trillion over the past 15 years. Besides, through joining hands with the Party and the State in hunger eradication and poverty alleviation, a lot of organisations and individuals in Vietnam and overseas have donated tens of trillions of VND to help the poor overcome the difficulties in life and rise out of poverty.
Not only that, in the past, many banks such as Vietnam Bank for Agiculture and Rural Development (Agribank), VBSP… have worked closely with the socio-political organizations in communicating and disseminating the orientations, policies and policy credit programs to support agriculture and rural development in all villages, hamlets and regions of the country; having become an effective channel of capital mobilization and management, helping farmers to gradually eradicate hunger, alleviate poverty and improve their lives.
With the drastic guidance from the SBV Board of Management and the proactive implementation of the commercial banks, credit for agriculture and rural development has had a constantly positive growth rate and accounted for a high proportion in the credit balance, making an important contribution to restructuring the agriculture and rural sector, and at the same time preventing and repelling black credit. According to the Credit Department of the SBV, by the end of July 2019, credit for agriculture and rural development was estimated to increase by 6% as compared to the end of 2018, and accounted for about 25% of the economy's outstanding credit.
The policy credit is now accessible at 100% of communes, wards and district towns across the country, with strong focus on lending to ethnic community communes, disadvantaged areas, remote, isolated and border areas... In the period of 2002 - 2017, more than 31.8 million loans were granted by VBSP to poor households and policy beneficiaries. This has helped over 4.5 million households to rise over the poverty line. The outstanding loans of VBSP's lendings to poor households, near-poor households and households having just escaped from poverty in 2018 reached over VND 96 trillion, with over 1 million customers; while these figures in first 6 months of 2019 reached over VND 100 trillion with nearly 500 thousand borrowers... Besides that, the banking sector has also implemented many programs and policies to support agriculture and rural development, lendings for people's legitimate living and consumption needs, especially those in the rural, isolated and remote areas.
The SBV has also implemented many credit programs, such as: Providing loans with preferential interest rates to increase mechanization and reduce losses in agriculture; loans to encourage the development of hi-tech and clean agriculture; housing support loans; lendings to policy credit programs at VBSP... In order to create favorable conditions for people to access banking products and services, the SBV has also directed credit institutions to step up the reforms of administrative procedures, simplify lending procedures, publicly list the procedures and give adequate guidance to people who come to borrow; diversify credit products to be suitable for the production and consumption activities of the people. At the same time, the SBV has encouraged commercial banks to develop a mobile banking model in the disadvantaged areas, making it easier for customers to access capital and other banking services.
Participants attending the meeting
In addition to the promulgation of mechanisms and policies on credit to the poor such as policy credit, credit for agriculture and rural development, the banking sector has always been proactive and dynamic in implementing social welfare programs, contributing to the cause of socio-economic development, hunger eradication and poverty alleviation in various areas in line with the policies of the Party, the State and the Government. The goal of the banking sector in performing the social welfare programs is first and foremort a sense of community, responsibility for the poor, and the realization of the Party and State's policy of "Leaving no one behind". Therefore, for many years, officials and employees in the banking sector, with their sense of responsibility for the community and their awareness of the disadvantaged people, and a spirit of “Good leaves cover torn leaves”, have made an annual donation to the social welfare program. This funding primarily comes from the officials’ and employees' own contributions with their own salaries. Secondly, welfare resources also come from the welfare funds established by the credit institutions and the commercial banks, as well as reasonable expenditures allowed for this social welfare purpose.
According to the statistics, from 2017 to the end of August 2019, the banking industry provided more than VND 3.9 trillion worth of assistance, focusing on three main areas: education; support for poor households and healthcare, including the construction of nearly 6,000 houses for the poor. The banking sector's funding programs often focus on disadvantaged areas in the Northwest region, the Central Highlands, the Southwest region, as well as many districts under the Government’s Program 30a on supporting rapid and sustainable poverty reduction. The banking sector has also provided timely assistance to mitigate the consequences of natural disasters in many areas through direct support (supplies, books, facilities,...), as well as through credit policies (debt restructuring, interest rate reduction and exemption, etc.) in order to help the affected people to restore production and stabilize their lives.
In the coming time, in support of the campaign of the VFF Central Committee, the banking sector will continue to promote programs of credit support, social welfares, especially for the poor, to help them overcome the difficulties and prosper in life. Especially, in response to the peak action month on 'For the Poor' and the emulation movement 'The whole country joining hands for the poor – leaving no one behind', the Vietnam Banking Trade Union has requested its subsidiary trade unions and the grassroots-level trade unions to conduct communication and mobilize the union members and employees at their units to suppory the Prime Minister's appeal for: "The whole country joining hands for the poor, leaving no one behind."
Participants send text messages to support the poor through the National Humanitarian Portal 1400
Accordingly, organisations and individuals are encouraged to send text messages in support and make contributions for the poor by texting "VNN n" to 1408 (with n being the multiplication of support of VND 20,000, ranging from 1 to 100 with unlimited number of text messages. For each text message, the mobile subscriber contributes VND 20,000 multiplied by n times of support for the poor). The timeline to participate in this text message support starts from 00h00' on August 19 to 24h00' on December 31, 2019.
On this occasion, the Prime Minister has awarded certificates of merit to 12 collectives and individuals across the country, who have made great contributions in supporting, communicating and mobilizing support for the Fund "For the Poor" and other social welfare programs. In particular, the Banking industry was honored to receive a Certificate of Merit for the Vietnam Banking Trade Union; 2 individual Certificates of Merit for Mr. Nguyen Van Tan - Standing Vice Chairman of Vietnam Banking Trade Union, and Mr. Dang Van Toi - Deputy Chief of the SBV Office. The VFF Central Committee also awarded certificates of merit to 29 collectives and 29 individuals who have made great contributions to in supporting, communicating and mobilizing support for the Fund "For the Poor" and social welfare programs during the 3 years of 2017-2019. For the Banking sector, 2 collectives (the SBV Office and the Department of Communications) and 4 individuals (who are from the SBV Department of Communications, Organisation and Personnel Department and Vietnam Banking Trade Union) were honored to receive the Merit Certificates of the VFF Central Committee.
The Vietnam Banking Trade Union receives the Prime Minister’s Certificate of Merit for its outstanding contributions
Collectives and individuals with outstanding contributions receive the Prime Minister’s Certificates of Merit
The SBV Office and the Deparment of Communications receive VFF Central Committee’s Certificates of Merit
Individuals with outstanding contributions receive the VFF Central Committee’s Certificates of Merit
President of the VFF Central Committee Tran Thanh Man announced that the VFF would organize the ‘Month for the Poor’, starting on October 17, with the aim of mobilizing donations to build houses and prepare for a warm Lunar New Year festival for the disadvantaged people across the country.
VA