Over 1.4 million ethnic minorities benefit from credit policies

About 211,000 needy ethnic minority students have been offered credit to pursue their studies. (Illustrative image)

Credit programmes under social policies have contributed positively to implementing national target programme on sustainable poverty reduction and social welfare assurance.

The information was reported by the VBSP at a seminar held in Hanoi on September 25 to review policy credit programmes for ethnic minority people in Vietnam.

The credit programmes have helped ethnic minority people to boost production, improve their living standards and escape from poverty. Thanks to the credit policies, more than two million ethnic minority households have escaped from poverty, over 162,000 workers have been provided with jobs, including 16,000 workers sent abroad, and about 211,000 needy students have been offered credit to pursue their studies.

In addition, 1,3 million water supply and environmental sanitation facilities and 215,000 social houses have been built under the policy credit programmes.

According to Politburo member and Head of the Party Central Committee’s Commission for Mass Mobilisation Truong Thi Mai, preferential credit policy is among 54 policies directly providing for ethnic minority people, which is also a highlight in sustainable poverty reduction.

The statistics from the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs showed that the poverty rate of Vietnam was reduced from 14.75% to 4.25% in the 2007 – 2015 period and from 8.23% to 5.35% in the 2016 – 2018 period.

In the future, the VBSP will continue to carry out preferential credit policies for needy households and ethnic minority people, particularly in the Southwest region, Central Highlands and Northwest region.

Source: NDO