(HBO) – At the end of 2018, the rate of the poor households in the north-western mountainous province of Hoa Binh is estimated at 14.74 percent, down 3.1 percent year-on-year. The result has reflected the efficiency of preferential loans for the poor.
Xa
Van Hoan, a man of the Tay ethnic minority group in Phu Son hamlet, Cao Son
commune, Da Bac district said before accessing the loans, his family had been
in the list of especially poor households in the commune. In 2012, his family
was eligible to get a loan worth 20 million VND from a programme that supports
poor households and another loan worth 8 million VND from the Vietnam Bank for
Social Policies (VBSP)’ Da Bac district branch under a programme supporting ethnic
minority households in special difficulties. With the money borrowed, his
family bought two buffalos that gave birth to two calves after nearly one year.
In 2015 Hoan’s family paid back the due debt and borrowed another 30 million
VND to invest in animal husbandry. Currently, his family has five buffaloes.

With preferential loans from the VBSP,
poor households in Cao Son commune (Da Bac district) have invested in buffalo
breeding, gradually getting rid of poverty and stabilising their lives.
Hoan’s family is one of the more than 90,000 others in the province which have surpassed
the poverty line after 15 years since the preferential loans were offered in
the province.
As of late November, 9,582 households had accessed loans totaling over 303
billion VND, with more than 256 billion VND already paid back. Total loan
outstanding balance exceeded 922 billion VND, with 31,851 debtors.
Local Party committees and authorities need to pay more attention to vocational
training and agriculture and forestry expansion in order to optimise the preferential
loans, helping accelerate poverty reduction in the province.
Living green is a healthy, positive, and sustainable lifestyle that not only helps protect
the environment and quality of life but also conserves natural resources and ecosystems.
Among the many ways to embrace this lifestyle, reducing plastic consumption is one of the most impactful.
The women's unions at all levels in Kim Boi district have been making significant contributions to the movement of building cultural life in the local community.
The movement helps improve rural look and the spiritual and material lives of local residents.
The Hoa Binh provincial People’s Committee has issued an action plan to ensure food safety, promote processing, and develop the market for agricultural, forestry, and fishery products in 2025.
In recent years, the development of rural handicrafts has not only helped preserve and promote the traditional values but it has also created jobs and improved incomes for the local residents.
By harmoniously combining traditional medicine with modern medical practices, the Hoa Binh Traditional Medicine Hospital is strengthening its role in the province’s healthcare system.