Social Policy Bank of Chuong My District: Transformation thanks to effective implementation of Directive 40 (Part 1)

After 10 years of implementing Directive No. 40-CT/TW dated November 22, 2014 of the Central Party Secretariat on strengthening the Party's leadership over social policy credit, with the drastic direction of Party committees and authorities at all levels, and the active participation of the entire political system from district to grassroots level, Directive 40 of the Secretariat has truly come into life and achieved important results.

Popular policy

With the motto " giving fishing rods is better than giving fish strings ", the Vietnam Bank for Social Policies (VBSP) was established under Decision No. 131/2002/QD-TTg dated October 4, 2002 to implement Decree No. 78/2002/ND-CP dated October 4, 2002 of the Government on credit for the poor and other policy beneficiaries.

In response to the initial operational effectiveness of the Social Policy Bank, on November 22, 2014, the Party Central Committee issued Directive No. 40-CT/TW on strengthening the Party's leadership over social policy credit (Directive 40). It can be said that this is a very important directive, demonstrating the Party's concern for an essential credit policy, contributing to creating a fundamental change from awareness to action of the entire political system. Over the past 10 years, Directive No. 40 has become the "compass" for policy credit activities in Chuong My district. The district's Social Policy Bank is not only a "bridge" for disbursing government credit but also a "lever" to promote the close connection between the Party - people - government in the work of poverty reduction and sustainable development.

Transformation thanks to effective implementation of Directive 40

Before Directive 40, policy credit activities in the district still had limitations such as: some members of the Representative Board did not have a firm grasp of policy credit, did not clearly understand their duties when participating as members of the Representative Board of the District Social Policy Bank; some Chairmen of the People's Committees at the commune level did not clearly understand and did not care about policy credit, and left it to the mass organizations; coordination in handling bad debts and outstanding interest faced many difficulties, many households were slow to pay their debts. At this time, Chuong My was the unit with the highest overdue debt of 820.5 million VND and outstanding interest of 4.7 billion VND, the highest in the whole of Hanoi, with 26/32 communes and towns having overdue debt. Poor credit quality has led to communes, towns, unions and management boards of Savings and Loan Groups being hesitant to implement lending, and has also affected the annual allocation of additional new policy credit capital by the City People's Committee to Chuong My district.

Fully aware of the importance of Directive 40, the Board of Directors of the District Social Policy Bank together with the staff have carefully studied Directive 40, reviewed each part of the tasks of each subject participating in the management and supervision of policy credit capital to gradually propose synchronous solutions to improve the quality of policy credit activities in the area.

First of all, the District Social Policy Bank promptly advised the District Party Committee and the District People's Committee to issue documents implementing Directive 40 and Conclusion 06-KL/TW of the Central Party Secretariat on strengthening the Party's leadership over policy credit. At regular meetings, advise the Head of the Board of Representatives of the District Social Policy Bank to request members of the Commune-level Representative Board to specifically report on the policy credit situation in the locality, clearly report the recovery results and the next handling plan for overdue loans, loans with potential risks, and outstanding interest; advise the Head of the Representative Board to work directly with some communes with high overdue debts, and meet and work with some procrastinating customers.

Identifying human resources as the key issue in improving the quality of the unit's policy credit, the Transaction Office has closely coordinated with local authorities at the commune level and associations at all levels to direct the focus on completing the separation, merger, and changing the Team Leader in a rolling manner for weak, poorly performing teams with low outstanding debt; strengthening the organization of reviewing and analyzing due debts for each item to have timely measures to support borrowers, assigning responsibility for the collection of overdue debts and outstanding interest for each item...

In addition, from the beginning of each year, the Transaction Office agrees with the District Union so that the District Union issues a document assigning targets for collecting overdue debts and remaining interest to commune-level unions; the District Union conducts quarterly reviews to promptly reward groups and individuals who complete and exceed targets for collecting overdue debts and remaining interest, etc.

On the part of the district Social Policy Bank, the Board of Directors increased working sessions with communes that have not paid much attention to policy credit; increased inspection and supervision of the policy credit implementation process in localities; credit officers increased the frequency of urging the collection of overdue debts and remaining interest; organized groups within the unit to assign targets for overdue debt collection, and provided forms of rewards to promptly motivate officers, constantly promoting the spirit of solidarity, striving to excellently complete assigned tasks.

Mr. Quach Thien Dung, Director of the District Social Policy Bank Transaction Office, said: thanks to the synchronous application of many solutions, up to now, in Chuong My district, Directive 40 has really come into life and achieved important results: Party committees and authorities at all levels have clearly recognized the role and position of policy credit; mobilized the participation of the entire political system and people in implementing credit programs; deployed a model of strict and effective policy credit management with the participation of 450 Savings and Loan groups, 32 transaction points in communes and towns, thereby helping the poor and policy beneficiaries to access preferential credit services conveniently; Impressive credit growth with loan turnover from 2015 to present reaching 2,024 billion VND, debt collection turnover reaching 1,397 billion VND, total outstanding debt of 10 programs reaching 864 billion VND with over 16 thousand households borrowing capital, an increase of 617 billion VND, 3.6 times higher than in 2015, the average annual growth rate reached 36%; credit quality in the area has been gradually consolidated and improved (at the end of 2014, overdue debt in the area was 820.5 million VND, accounting for 0.33% of total outstanding policy credit, up to now, Chuong My district has no overdue debt, remaining interest is 451 million VND, down over 4.2 billion VND). In addition, despite limited budget revenue, the district still prioritizes allocating a portion of the annual budget for social policy credit, paying attention to transferring additional entrusted capital through the district's Social Policy Bank for lending with an amount of VND 8.1 billion, an increase of VND 7.9 billion compared to the time before Directive No. 40-CT/TW.

The effective implementation of policy credit capital in the area has contributed to the successful implementation of the district's goals and tasks in economic development, new rural construction, and ensuring social security. Up to now, the district has met the standards of a new rural district, 14 communes have met the standards of advanced new rural areas, and 04 communes have met the standards of model new rural areas; in the past 10 years, nearly 8,000 households have escaped poverty; the poverty rate of the district has decreased year by year, the poverty rate in the period 2016 - 2020 decreased by an average of 8.8%/year; in the period 2021 - 2023, the poverty rate decreased by 0.45%; by the end of 2023, the poverty rate of the district will decrease to 0.12%. The number of workers who have been created jobs, maintained jobs and expanded jobs from policy credit capital in 10 years is over 27,000 workers, accounting for 30% of the total number of workers who have been created jobs. Policy credit capital has also made an important contribution to limiting the situation of black credit, ensuring order, political security and social safety in the district.

With deep trust and the humane nature of the social policy credit program, the consensus and efforts of the entire political system and the entire people, including the Social Policy Bank, social credit activities in the district have and will continue to achieve many results, contributing significantly to the socio-economic development of the district and of Hanoi City.

Source: https://thoibaonganhang.vn/nhcsxh-huyen-chuong-my-chuyen-minh-nho-trien-khai-hieu-qua-chi-thi-40-bai-1-158898.html