A jackfruit orchard in Tiền Giang Province’s Cái Bè District. Many poor households in the province have been given soft loans to grow crops or do business to escape poverty.– VNA/VNS Photo Vũ Sinh

TIỀN GIANG – Many impoverished households in the Cửu Long (Mekong) Delta province of Tiền Giang have benefited from soft loans through poverty alleviation programmes and escaped poverty.

The Việt Nam Bank for Social Policies’ (VBSP) Tiền Giang branch has collaborated with the province Women’s Union, Farmers Association and other organisations to lend to disadvantaged people to grow crops, breed animals or aquatic species and carry on production under various programmes in recent years.

The Farmers Association has set up 1,263 loan and savings groups to get soft loans for its members, especially needy ones, and 35,775 members have got loans worth a total of VNĐ1.3 trillion (US$56.8 million) in this manner.

In Châu Thành District, the local Farmers Association has helped 7,110 members get loans, and has also taught them advanced farming techniques to improve farming efficiency.

Võ Văn Khang, chairman of the Châu Thành People’s Committee, said these and implementation of the district’s competition for excellent farmers have helped thousands of rural labourers find jobs and earn a regular income, thus escaping poverty.

The competition honours farmers who achieve outstanding results.

The Women’s Union has helped more than 2,700 poor members get loans worth a total of VNĐ80.2 billion ($3.5 million) from VBSP Tiền Giang this year.

In 2016 – 20 the branch provided loans worth a total of VNĐ2.4 trillion ($105 million) to 120,274 poor and near – poor households through the province’s 12 poverty mitigation programmes.

The province has provided free health insurance cards to poor and near poor people, those who live in disadvantaged communes, work in the agricultural sector, or are slightly better off than near-poor people.

In 2016 – 20 it spent more than VNĐ3.4 trillion ($148 million) on support policies for the poor, and managed to reduce its poverty rate in the period from 5.87 per cent to 3 per cent.

It targets reducing it to 1.67 per cent this year.

To achieve the target, it will assess impoverished households to ensure there are proper support policies, according to the People’s Committee.    

It would focus on programmes for supporting needy people carry on production and other businesses, diversify their livelihoods and acquire housing.

Disadvantaged people who lack resources to grow crops or raise animals would be offered loans, and those seeking jobs would get help with finding one locally and even overseas, it said. – VNS