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| Friday, 24 September 2004 |
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Vietnam strives to create more prosperity by Huang haimin and Thai Thanhvan HANOI, (Xinhua) - Several dozens of farmers gathered recently in small old house in Vietnam's northern mountainous province of Tuyen Quang in an afternoon to get advice on how to apply for a bank loan for farming expansion which will eventually result in bigger income. In the 81-million population country, where per capita annual income is some 400 US dollars, Phung Hoang Hai, one of the poor farmer in the Son Phu Commune, is a relatively experienced borrower. He has received three credits from the Vietnam Bank for Social Policy since 2001. To the farmers in the commune, about 300 km from the capital city of Hanoi, the credits are of significant meaning. "With the loans, I have managed to arrange my production more effectively," Hai gladly said, pointing hand to his immense field of green maize ahead, which are bearing corncobs. Thanks to three credits of some 10 million VND (nearly 640 dollars), life of his family which could not afford pork or fish several years ago has undergone profound changes. "Now, we do not have think much about food for every day's meals as before," Hai said, boasting that his house is furnished with necessary appliances such as beds, wardrobes, and even televisions. This time, the 48-year-old farmer, plans to borrow 3 million Vietnamese dong (VND) (191 dollars) to raise cows at monthly interest rate of 0.8 percent. The small credit was part of a three-year project launched in 2003 by the bank in collaboration with the Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA), which aims to help impoverished people steadily develop production and gradually improve their quality of life. And this is only one of many projects implemented across Vietnam since 1998 when the country began a national hunger elimination and poverty reduction program, aiming to lower the percentage of its poor households to below 10 percent in 2005 and 5 percent in 2010. In the 2001-2003 period, the government poured 5 trillion VND ( 318.5 million dollars) into poverty reduction projects, which mainly involve in creating jobs, and improving education, healthcare and infrastructure in poor areas. Meanwhile, it granted financial assistance to 150,000 poor households for seedlings, fertilizers,insecticides and animal feed, and facilitated more than 2.7 million others to access collateral-free bank loans with preferential interest rates totaling 9 trillion VND (573.2 million dollars) for production expansion. With the viewpoint of attaching poverty reduction with sustainable economic development, the government has incorporated programs on health, education, and infrastructure improvement into anti-poverty reduction projects. It poured more than 1 trillion VND (63.7 million dollars) in healthcare projects over the past three years, issuing health insurance cards to 12 million poor people and providing free medical check-ups and treatment to 7.5 million others. Meanwhile, the government provided textbooks and other school aid worth 500 billion VND (31.8 million dollars) for around 4 million school students, and offered free or reduced tuition fees to more than 7 others. Those who live in mountainous areas and are ethnic minority people enjoy tuition fee exemption while those live in plain areas benefit from the reduction of 50 percent. From 1998 to 2003, Vietnam's total investment in infrastructure projects, mainly on upgrading irrigation network, bridges and roads, reached 5 trillion VND (318.5 million dollars), benefiting 2,325 poor communes. |
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