The Vietnam Bank for Social Policies (VBSP) has provided preferential loans for around 24.8 million poor and near-poor families, allowing 3.2 million of them to escape from poverty. A report on the bank’s nearly-12-year operation showed that it had a total credit balance worth VND126.8 trillion ($6 billion) by the end of October 2014. Its annual growth rate hits 29.4% on average in the reviewed period. In its Instruction 40-CT/TW on enhancing the Party’s leadership over social policy-benefiting credits, the Party Secretariat requested enhancing the VBSP’s capacity and operation efficiency as the credits it offered have yet met actual needs. Despite great achievements made during more than 20 years of renewal, Vietnam remains poor compared to other Asian countries. Statistics show that the country’s annual per capita income in 2013 reached 2,960 USD, equivalent to 3.5%, 7.3% and 18.6% of the figures of Singapore, the Republic of Korea, and Malaysia, respectively. Last year, nearly 1.8 million poor households and almost 1.4 million near-poor families were recorded in the country, requiring greater efforts in eradicating hunger, reducing poverty, and improving living standard for people. (vietnamplus.vn Dec 1)
