According to the meeting’s report, aside from stable growth in the bank’s outstanding loan balances associated with policy credit programmes, the debt quality has remained stable.

As of now, total policy credit sources at VBSP reached $12.6 billion, showing an increase of $1.44 billion or a 13 per cent jump compared to earlier this year.

Authorised capital sources sent to VBSP from localities to lend to households and other policy beneficiaries reached $1.25 billion, up $184.2 million compared to early 2022.

VBSP chairwoman Nguyen Thi Hong was giving remarks at the review meeting

Total outstanding balances from policy credit programmes amounted to $11.93 billion, an increase of $1.15 billion equal to a 10.7 per cent jump with more than 6,432,000 near-poor households and policy beneficiaries taking loans from the VBSP system.

Significantly, policy credit sources have channelled into feeding production and business needs, helping to create livelihoods and employment for many people, particularly lending to beneficiaries in areas with difficult living conditions. The outstanding balances of such programmes touched $8.82 billion, representing 74 per cent of the total.

Part of policy credit sources has served living requirements, such as lending to students, building clean water and environmental sanitation works in rural areas, and to households or for buying or building food-resilient houses in the central region, the Mekong Delta, and the Central Highlands. Total balances of such programmes reached $3.1 billion, equal to 26 per cent of the total.

In the year to date, policy credit sources have helped over 660,000 labourers to secure jobs, more than 4,900 labourers to work abroad on term-based contracts, over 17,000 students facing difficulties to cover learning expenses, and more than 82,000 family households to buy computers and other learning devices for their children.

In addition, nearly 1,100 businesses took on loans from the VBSP system serving production and business rebound. Policy credit sources have also been used for wage payments to more than 155,000 pandemic-hit labourers and for building more than 1,000 houses for low-income people to stabilise their lives.

As for the implementation of the scheme to lend to employers hit by the pandemic, on March 31, VBSP completed 36 refinancing loans from the central bank to lend to eligible employers through VBSP branches in all provinces nationwide.

The total lent amount under the scheme reached $208 million, given to over 3,560 employers for wage payments to more than 1.21 million labourers.

The outstanding balance under the scheme now stands at $173.8 million, with 766 borrowers.

In her remarks at the third-quarter review meeting, State Bank Governor and VBSP chairwoman Nguyen Thi Hong noted that the difficulties the country faces post-pandemic have cast major impacts on people’s lives, particularly households in need.

"Despite these hardships, VBSP has weathered the storm and posted encouraging results. VBSP’s achievements have been significant to people and policy beneficiaries in current circumstances," Hong said.

Hong also required VBSP’s board of management to step up efforts to expand capital sources along with enhancing credit quality through taking concrete measures, strengthening inspection and risk control activities, expediting post-audit work, and diversifying ways of propagation, among others.