VietNamNet Bridge – More than two million poor students across Viet Nam have benefited from a Government low-interest loan scheme over the last three years, according to a report released at a meeting in Ha Noi yesterday, March 10.


HTML clipboard People register to get low-interest loan for their children's schooling at Viet Nam Bank for Social Policies in Ha Noi's Ha Dong District. More than 2 million poor students nationwide have benefited from the loan scheme. (Photo: VNS)
Student loans totalling more than VND27 trillion (US$1.35 billion) have helped children from 1.8 million families living in poverty keep up with their studies at universities and colleges since the 2007-08 academic year.


Under the credit scheme, the Viet Nam Bank for Social Policies now offers loans of up to VND900,000 ($45) per month for students at a monthly interest rate of 0.5 per cent, which is far lower than commercial loans.


Students also do not have to start repaying their debts until four months after they graduate from university.


The bank should have enough resources to offer student loans until the end of next year, before it starts to recoup money from older beneficiaries to help the next generation of students in 2013.


Addressing the meeting, Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Thien Nhan said the scheme had helped anyone who wanted to pursue higher education.


"This is an investment in the country's human resources," he said.


Le Thi Linh, a farmer from Thanh Ba District in the northern province of Phu Tho, said that without the financial support, her daughter would not have been able to go to college.


Her daughter, Le Thi Huong, a second-year student at the provincial Economics College, had borrowed VND16 million ($800) from the bank for her first two years of study.


"As a single mum with two daughters, how could I afford her tuition fees (over VND3 million per year) on my own?" said Linh.


"This Government scheme means a lot to my family."


The student loan scheme has been modified on two occasions to make it more useful, according to the Government report.


The maximum monthly loan has been lifted to VND900,000 from VND800,000 and procedures have been improved to make it more accessible.


However, Deputy Finance Minister Tran Xuan Ha said the low interest rate had become a burden on the State budget.

Supervising the use of loans and claiming debts also posed a big challenge to the scheme, he said.


Nhan said the Finance Ministry and the Bank for Social Policies should consider bringing additional banks into the scheme.


The supervision of the loans to make sure they were being correctly used should also be done every academic term, he said.


VietNamNet/Viet Nam News