In recent years, tea growers in Tan Trao commune, Tuyen Quang province have no longer had to worry about watering tea in the dry season. From preferential loans from the Vietnam Bank for Social Policies (VBSP), all households have invested in automatic irrigation systems.
Mr. Doan Van Thanh, Tan Trao commune, said that with 5 sao of tea from his family for manual watering, it takes nearly 2 hours and requires expensive labor. But when installing an automatic irrigation system, everything is much easier.
"In 2023, I applied for a loan of 50 million VND from Son Duong Social Policy Bank to invest in an automatic rainwater spraying system for the entire family's tea garden area. The economic efficiency is clear, reducing water consumption, reducing labor, and increasing income from tea trees," Mr. Thanh shared.
As for Ms. Ly Thi Ha, a poor household in Phu Luong commune, thanks to a loan of 100 million VND from the Social Policy Bank in early 2024, her family's life has changed many times. With a stable livelihood, Mrs. Ha's family can rest assured to escape poverty.
"If I borrowed 100 million, I spent more than 60 million to buy breeding cows, the rest to buy farming equipment for raising cows and agricultural production. Up to now, the cows have been sold in one generation, if it was favorable, I could only repay the loan in 3 years. Without policy capital, it is unknown when we will escape poverty," said Ms. Ha.
Currently, the Son Duong Social Policy Bank Transaction Office is implementing 19 credit programs with a total outstanding debt of VND 950.2 billion, providing loans to 17,056 poor households, near-poor households and policy beneficiaries to develop the economy and sustainably reduce poverty.
Ms. Hoang Le Na - Director of Son Duong Social Policy Bank Transaction Office said that the maximum loan for poor households is 100 million VND, interest rate is only 6.6%/year, loan term is up to 10 years; near-poor households are 7.92%/year. For the production and business lending program in disadvantaged areas, households can also borrow 100 million VND/household, with an interest rate of 9%/year.
"Preferential loan programs for poor households, near-poor households, newly escaped poverty households and loans for production development in disadvantaged areas all allow people to use them to invest in equipment for agricultural production. Low interest rates, long loan terms, and no mortgage requirements are major advantages that help people boldly innovate," said Ms. Na.
According to the Report of Tuyen Quang Provincial People's Committee, by the end of August 2025, the total outstanding loans of policy credit programs in the area reached more than VND 10,491 billion, an increase of more than VND 4,260 billion compared to 2020, an average growth rate of 11.1%/year.
Policy credit capital has been invested in 100% of communes and wards, with priority given to ethnic minority areas, remote areas, and areas with special difficulties. In the 2021-2025 period, the whole province has over 247,000 poor households and other policy beneficiaries receiving loans, with lending turnover reaching VND13,130 billion.
Thanks to this capital source, the poverty rate of the province has decreased sharply from 38.28% in 2021 to 22.53% by the end of 2024, an average decrease of nearly 4%/year; average income per capita reached 37.9 million VND/year, an increase of 11.9 million VND compared to 2021.
In the coming period, Tuyen Quang province aims to continue developing the policy credit system in a stable, sustainable and modern direction, with an average credit growth rate of about 10% per year.
Tuyen Quang province has also proposed that the Government consider raising the maximum lending level for production and business households in disadvantaged areas from 100 million VND to 200 million VND. Thereby creating conditions for poor households, near-poor households, and newly escaped poverty households to have enough resources to develop economic models and escape poverty.
