HANOI, Sept. 16 (Xinhuanet) -- Several dozens of farmers gathered recently in small old house in Vietnam's northern mountainous province of Tuyen Quang in an afternoon to get advice on how to apply for a bank loan for farming expansion which will eventually result in bigger income.

    In the 81-million population country, where per capita annual income is some 400 US dollars, Phung Hoang Hai, one of the poor farmer in the Son Phu Commune, is a relatively experienced borrower. He has received three credits from the Vietnam Bank for Social Policy since 2001.

    To the farmers in the commune, about 300 km from the capital city of Hanoi, the credits are of significant meaning. "With the loans, I have managed to arrange my production more effectively," Hai gladly said, pointing hand to his immense field of green maizea head, which are bearing corncobs.

    Thanks to three credits of some 10 million VND (nearly 640 dollars), life of his family which could not afford pork or fish several years ago has undergone profound changes. "Now, we do not have think much about food for every day's meals as before," Hai said, boasting that his house is furnished with necessary appliances such as beds, wardrobes, and even televisions.

    This time, the 48-year-old farmer, plans to borrow 3 million Vietnamese dong (VND) (191 dollars) to raise cows at monthly interest rate of 0.8 percent.

    The small credit was part of a three-year project launched in 2003 by the bank in collaboration with the Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA), which aims to help impoverished people steadily develop production and gradually improve their quality oflife.

    And this is only one of many projects implemented across Vietnam since 1998 when the country began a national hunger elimination and poverty reduction program, aiming to lower the percentage of its poor households to below 10 percent in 2005 and 5 percent in 2010.

    In the 2001-2003 period, the government poured 5 trillion VND (318.5 million dollars) into poverty reduction projects, which mainly involve in creating jobs, and improving education, healthcare and infrastructure in poor areas.

    Meanwhile, it granted financial assistance to 150,000 poor households for seedlings, fertilizers,insecticides and animal feed, and facilitated more than 2.7 million others to access collateral-free bank loans with preferential interest rates totaling 9 trillion VND (573.2 million dollars) for production expansion.

    With the viewpoint of attaching poverty reduction with sustainable economic development, the government has incorporated programs on health, education, and infrastructure improvement intoanti-poverty reduction projects.

    It poured more than 1 trillion VND (63.7 million dollars) in healthcare projects over the past three years, issuing health insurance cards to 12 million poor people and providing free medical check-ups and treatment to 7.5 million others.

    Meanwhile, the government provided textbooks and other school aid worth 500 billion VND (31.8 million dollars) for around 4 million school students, and offered free or reduced tuition fees to more than 7 others. Those who live in mountainous areas and areethnic minority people enjoy tuition fee exemption while those live in plain areas benefit from the reduction of 50 percent.

    From 1998 to 2003, Vietnam's total investment in infrastructureprojects, mainly on upgrading irrigation network, bridges and roads, reached 5 trillion VND (318.5 million dollars), benefiting 2,325 poor communes.

    Together with intensifying investment in farm production, health, education and infrastructure, the country has encouraged university graduates to work in mountainous and remote areas. Through programs of Vietnam's Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union onsending intellectuals to poor regions, 500 young intellectuals have voluntarily come to work in the areas as teachers, doctors, and technicians since 2001.

    Besides, the government has called for international organizations such as the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank and the UN Development Program to grant more support to its fight against poverty. To this end, it has pledged to better harmonize procedures relating to accepting assistance and implementing anti-poverty projects.

    Thanks to the efforts, the number of households living below the country's poverty line, referring to per capital monthly income of under 80,000 VND (5 dollars) for highlands and island dwellers, 100,000 VND (6.5 dollars) for rural people and 150,000 VND (9.5 dollars) for urban citizens, dropped to 1.5 million or 9 percent of total households in late 2003 from 2.8 million or 17.2 percent in early 2001.

    Being unsatisfied with the result, Vietnam will make greater efforts to reduce its poverty rate to below 7.5 percent by the endof 2004 and 6 percent by 2005, much lower than the previous targets, said Ngo Truong Thi, vice head of the Office for the National Hunger Alleviation and Poverty Reduction Program.

    Fueled by the faster-than-expected poverty reduction pace, the Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs is working on aplan that will adjust the country's poverty criterion at 211,000 VND (13.4 dollars) per month for urban dwellers and 183,000 VND (11.7 dollars) for rural residents.

    Under the plan, Vietnam will concentrate on developing poor mountainous and remote areas, border areas and islands, mainly through indirect support such as offering vocational training to local people, directing them ways of doing business, and helping them seek markets for their products, he said, adding that preferential policies regarding housing, land allocation, and credit provision for the poor will also be issued soon.

    "The fight against poverty is always on the way, and it is the first concern of the government," Thi noted. Enditem