The preferential credit helps the households in Tay village, Tan Minh commune (Da Bac) with the capital to invest in buffalo raising, gradually getting rid out of poverty.

20 years passing since the branch of the Bank for Social Policies (VBSP) has been put into operation, it has made an important contribution to the hunger eradication and poverty reduction in the province. With over 644 thousand turns of the poor households and those who are under the preferential policies receiving the preferential loans, and over 116,000 households have escaped from poverty and hunger. In addition, tens of thousands of clean water and sanitation projects have been built, helping the people in disadvantaged areas improve and enhance their quality of life. With the percentage of ethnic minorities accounting for over 74%, it can be said that the preferential credit effects have made an important contribution to the ethnic minorities in the province to overcome hunger and poverty.

According to the provincial VBSP, the whole branch has implemented many credit programs for the ethnic minorities and mountainous areas over the past years. For example, the loan program for ethnic minority households with special difficulties implemented in 2007 under Decision No. 32/2007/QD-TTg, Decision No. 54/2012/QD-TTg of the Prime Minister; lending to the poor and difficult ethnic minority households implemented in 2015 according to Decision No. 755/QD-TTg for the poor ethnic minority households and poor households living in difficult areas who need to change jobs; loans to the ethnic minority households according to Decision No. 2085/QD-TTg having implemented since 2018. This is a credit program for the borrowers who are ethnic minority households in the villages, hamlets and communes in the ethnic minority and mountainous areas, the poor households in zone III, the communes with especially difficult circumstances to get loans to create productive land, change jobs, and do business.

Through 20 years of practice, the implementation of the preferential credit through VBSP has brought about obvious effects, changing the face of the villages in ethnic minority and mountainous areas in the province. For example, Lac Son district is a large area with a large population with mainly ethnic minorities with many communes and hamlets still facing difficulties. In recent years, promoting the effectiveness of preferential credit has helped over 4,500 poor households and the households living in ethnic minority and mountainous areas escape poverty. From 2 credit programs, up to now, VBSP in Lac Son district has implemented 14 programs with most of the subjects living in disadvantaged areas having access to capital.

Facing the practical effects of the preferential credit, on April 26, 2022, the Government issued Decree No. 28/2022/ND-CP on the preferential credit policies to implement the National Target Program for the socio-economic development of the Ethnic minority and mountainous areas in the period of 2021 - 2030, phase 1 from 2021 - 2025. On June 30, 2022, the General Director of VBSP issued Document No. 4912/HD-NHCS on lending the professional guidelines supporting residential land, housing, production land, job changing and production development along the value chain, according to Decree No. 28/2022/ND-CP.

According to the decree, the implementation area is the commune and village level in the ethnic minority and mountainous areas according to the provisions of law on the criteria for the delimitation of the ethnic minority and mountainous areas in each period. The loans programs include: Loans supporting residential land and houses; production support, job changing; investment loans, supporting the development of areas growing precious medicinal herbs; loans supporting production along the value chain.

In order for the policy to quickly come to life, the provincial VBSP's leaders say that the Committee for Ethnic Minority Affairs, VBSP, the relevant departments, divisions, branches, localities, agencies and units should step up propaganda work and focus on reviewing the beneficiaries under the prefferential policies. It is necessary to ensure that 100% of eligible beneficiaries under the prefferential policies and those in need can access the preferential capital and promote the efficiency of the objectives of the credit programs. Up to now, according to the review results of the functional sector, the total demand for loans for this new credit program in the province is more than 153 billion VND.