When the commune chairman does social policy credit

After 9 years of implementing the Government's policy of adding commune-level People's Committee Chairmen to the Board of Directors (BOD) of the Vietnam Bank for Social Policies (VBSP), the majority of commune-level People's Committee Chairmen in Quang Tri province have promoted their roles and responsibilities, coordinated with socio-political organizations and district-level VBSP Transaction Offices to effectively deploy local social policy credit capital.

Mr. Do An Chung, Chairman of Gio Son Commune People's Committee, discussed with the commune Women's Union officials about social policy capital entrusted through the association - Photo: ML

Since joining the Board of Directors of the Gio Linh District Social Policy Bank, Mr. Do An Chung, Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee and Chairman of the People's Committee of Gio Son Commune, has always fully participated in meetings of the Board of Directors of the Gio Linh District Social Policy Bank and closely monitored the activities of the bank's transaction sessions according to a fixed schedule in the commune.

Thanks to that, he quickly grasped new contents on social credit and proposed timely solutions to difficulties and obstacles in the implementation process at the local level. Thereby promoting the effectiveness of preferential loans from the State in poverty reduction, ensuring social security and promoting local economic development.

In 2009, Mr. Chung started working as a commune official. In 2011, he was elected by the people as Chairman of the Commune People's Committee and has been so until now. Born and raised in Gio Son, and having worked for many years in the commune, Mr. Chung has a good understanding of the local development situation as well as the circumstances of each household, especially the poor and policy beneficiaries.

Therefore, he always has a way to manage, direct and coordinate to solve problems related to policy credit activities reasonably, ensuring the assignment of responsibilities to the focal points in the commune in a smooth manner. "To effectively implement social credit programs, first of all, there must be public and democratic evaluation, and we cannot let the poor who are already in difficulty worry.

When encountering a problem, we must find a solution that is humane, reasonable, and in accordance with the people's wishes. During the process of people using the loan capital, I always closely monitor with associations, unions, and savings and loan groups (TK&VV) to promptly guide and remind people to use the loan capital for the right purpose and promote efficiency," Mr. Chung shared.

Meanwhile, in Krong Klang town, Dakrong district, in the past, the awareness level of officials and people towards social credit was not high. Therefore, many households were able to borrow capital but did not know how to use the loan capital to invest in suitable production models. People were not aware of paying interest and saving to gradually pay off the principal debt but instead waited and relied on subsidies from the State and other sources of support.

While some leaders of the Savings and Credit Groups are still passive, the effectiveness of investment resources from social policy capital in the area has not been promoted. Identifying the shortcomings and limitations of the locality, in his role as Chairman of the People's Committee of Krong Klang town, after participating in the Board of Directors of the District Social Policy Bank, Mr. Le Quang Thach organizes monthly meetings on social policy credit to discuss solutions to overcome difficulties, assigning specific responsibilities to local associations and organizations in the implementation process.

Mr. Thach also directly directed the team to urge and collect debts by many measures such as propaganda, encouragement, inviting to the commune People's Committee headquarters to work and requesting the borrowers to commit to repaying the loan; in cases of leaving the locality, the family members were contacted to find the address and mobilize the borrowers to fulfill their debt repayment obligations.

Thanks to the synchronous implementation of solutions, including promoting the role and responsibility of leaders, investment resources from social credit have gradually become effective in mountainous towns. This is clearly demonstrated through many figures that have increased steadily over the years.

Typically, the average income per capita in Krong Klang increased from 10.5 million VND in 2014 to 46 million VND in 2023; the poverty rate decreased from 39.26% in 2015 to 16.31% in 2020 (according to the old poverty standard), from 30% in 2021 to 23.7% at the end of 2023 (according to the new poverty standard). On average, the poverty rate in the town decreased by 3.5% per year.

“The encouraging thing is that the loan programs of the district’s Social Policy Bank are currently quite effective, and most borrowers use the loans for the right purposes. It can be said that the social policy capital source helps the poor and policy beneficiaries gradually change their awareness to change their lives,” said Mr. Thach.

According to Mr. Ngo Van Bao, Director of the Dakrong District Social Policy Bank Transaction Office, not only in Krong Klang town but also under the direct guidance of the commune People's Committee Chairmen, the coordination between the local government and the district Social Policy Bank has become closer and more effective.

The Chairman of the Commune People's Committee has strongly directed the poverty reduction committee, village chiefs and coordinated with socio-political organizations entrusted with implementing policy credit programs, better managing policy credit capital in the area. Since then, credit quality has been improved, overdue debts have been reduced, weak savings and credit groups have been strengthened; new policies and guidelines have been promptly deployed to beneficiaries.

In Quang Tri province, immediately after the document guiding the implementation of adding the Chairman of the People's Committee at the commune level to participate in the Board of Directors of the district-level Social Policy Bank, the Quang Tri branch of the Social Policy Bank instructed the district and town transaction offices to follow the correct procedures, processes and regulations of the superiors.

Currently, 100% of the chairmen of the People's Committees at the commune level in the province are members of the Board of Directors of the district-level Social Policy Bank. Through implementation, the role of state management in credit activities of the Social Policy Bank at the grassroots level has been enhanced; preferential credit capital is linked to local economic development plans, hunger eradication and poverty reduction programs and new rural construction.

Mai Lam

Source: https://baoquangtri.vn/khi-chu-tich-xa-lam-tin-dung-chinh-sach-xa-hoi-186721.htm