The Vietnam Challenge Fund (VNCF) has effectively assisted the development of small and medium-sized enterprises, hunger eradication and poverty reduction in rural and remote areas, the Communist Party of Vietnam said on its website June 5. Chairman of the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) Nguyen Tien Loc spoke highly it as a creative project at a conference to review the two-year operation of the fund in Hanoi June 4. In spite of its risky investment, the fund has made active contributions to hunger elimination in its targeted provinces, Loc emphasized. Over the past two years, the VNCF has backed eight projects, ranging from agriculture, fishery, handicraft, to vocational training in the northern provinces of Thanh Hoa, Bac Giang, Quang Ninh, Bac Kan and Yen Bai.
Through projects, VNCF has also helped build schools and workshops and procure machinery and equipment in service of vocational training poor people with disabilities in the southern province of Bac Giang. Set up in 2008, the VNCF, which was managed by the VCCI Business Development Institute, aimed to boost business and production creativeness and contribute to socio-economic development.
