Over 1.6M Poor Households Get Preferential Loans in Nine Months

More than 1.62 million poor households and welfare policy beneficiaries gained access to preferential loans worth over VND54.9 trillion ($2.36 billion) in the first nine months of 2019, up VND6.15 trillion compared to the same period last year. According to the Vietnam Bank for Social Policies (VBSP), social policy credit has contributed to supporting production and business activities as well as generating jobs for over 162,000 workers, including 4,800 working abroad under fixed-term contracts. The VBSP also provided loans for over 12,000 students and supported needy households to build over one million clean water supply and toilet facilities and 12,000 houses. After 17 years of operation, social policy credit has thrived with more than 20 investment programs carried out across the country, with priority given to ethnic minority, mountainous and border regions. Since 2016, nearly 7.7 million poor households under the new poverty standards and other social policy beneficiaries have received loans worth over VND211.7 trillion from the VBSP. (Vietnam News)