Reporter of Natural Resources & Environment Newspaper had an interview with Mr. Do Huu Tung - Vice Chairman of Dong Giang District People's Committee about effective methods in the locality.
Reporter: Sir, what solutions has the locality had in recent times to effectively support people in eliminating hunger and reducing poverty?
Mr. Do Huu Tung: In recent years, despite many difficulties due to the impact of natural disasters, floods and the COVID-19 pandemic, with the drastic, focused and focused direction of the Party Committee and local authorities, poverty reduction work in the district has achieved many outstanding achievements and results. According to the results of the investigation and review of poor households by the end of 2022, the whole district still had 3,394 poor households, accounting for 45.18%, a decrease of more than 511 households compared to 2021, equivalent to a decrease of 7.7%.
Such achievements are thanks to the locality's effective implementation of programs and policies on forest management and protection contracts in the area to village communities. Up to now, the programs and policies on forest management and protection contracts in the area have brought about very good results and effects, people have a stable source of income, the unit price for forest protection is increasingly raised, contributing to stabilizing the lives of local people.
In particular, the locality creates conditions for the poor, near-poor, and those who have registered to escape poverty to access loan sources, directly participate in training courses, seminars, and improve capacity from sustainable poverty reduction policy programs. Through current reality, the poor and near-poor in the district are fully supported with policies on health insurance, education, vocational training, loans, job creation, housing, etc., proving that this policy has entered people's lives.
However, in the process of implementing poverty reduction policies, some shortcomings have been revealed, such as the allocation of capital sources, mechanisms to encourage vocational training and job creation for the poor are not suitable to the characteristics of the regions; the work of selecting households and models to participate in production support projects and diversifying livelihoods to replicate poverty reduction models has not innovated both cognitive thinking and production methods; resources are concentrated on the model of spreading and sharing equally; housing support for poor households is still difficult due to low quotas, requirements to borrow policy capital, and contributions from clans and communities; the work of investigating and reviewing to identify poor households in some localities is still confusing because the criteria have changed but the guidance is not specific; the organization and implementation of poverty reduction policies in some localities is sometimes not timely due to pressure on time and assigned targets.
PV: The effective poverty reduction results are partly due to the effective management and use of loan capital. Can you share your experience in supervising social policy credit work in the locality?
Mr. Do Huu Tung: As of April 30, 2023, the outstanding debt of the district's Social Policy Bank was 265 billion VND with nearly 5,000 borrowing households, accounting for 66% of the total number of households. Good credit quality with low overdue debt of 35 million, accounting for 0.01%. Social policy credit has been and is being implemented, contributing positively to promoting socio-economic development in the district, helping people to be more proactive in developing production, many project models invested in loans have been effective, attracting many workers, increasing income and reducing the rate of poor households in the locality.
To effectively implement the loan policy for the poor, the locality has supported farming households to do a good job of converting crops and livestock, promoting production development along with implementing social policy credit to increase productivity, increase the efficiency of loan use; deploying loans for combined agricultural and forestry production models that bring high economic efficiency for replication.
We also highlight the role of the Chairman of the Commune People's Committee - a member of the Board of Directors of the Social Policy Bank at the district level in organizing and operating policy credit activities. In particular, focusing on directing the review and lending to the right beneficiaries, linking lending activities with local programs and projects, and activities to support borrowers to promote the effectiveness of loans.
At the same time, strengthen coordination with media agencies and entrusted organizations to organize propaganda activities on credit policies, effective business models, poverty alleviation, and getting rich from loans from the Vietnam Bank for Social Policies.
Borrowed households are guided and monitored regularly, so the use of loan capital by poor households is guaranteed to be for the right purpose and effective.
PV: In the coming time, what solutions will the locality continue to have to effectively implement the loan policy for the poor, contributing to sustainable poverty reduction?
Mr. Do Huu Tung: The loan program is one of the “pillars” in the local poverty reduction policy system. Effective implementation of social policy credit will contribute to rapid and sustainable poverty reduction. Therefore, we continue to raise awareness, roles and responsibilities of all levels on sustainable poverty reduction policies and guidelines; improve the organization and staff working on poverty reduction; improve the capacity of grassroots poverty reduction staff; inspect, monitor and evaluate the Program at all levels; investigate to identify poor and near-poor households and classify poor and near-poor households.
In addition, mobilizing many resources to serve the implementation of sustainable poverty reduction, prioritizing the timely and sufficient allocation of the state budget to implement poverty reduction support policies, focusing on mobilizing contributions from enterprises, and mobilizing sponsorship from organizations and individuals to achieve the goal of sustainable poverty reduction.
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