Solutions to ensure social security

Since 2020, despite many difficulties caused by the Covid-19 epidemic, the Party committees and authorities at all levels of Hoa Binh province have made great efforts to well implement the goals and tasks of the Poverty Reduction Program. Many solutions to ensure social security have been carried out by the local government to overcome all challenges and difficulties.

According to a report by the Department of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs of Hoa Binh, by the end of 2021, the poverty rate in the province was 6.30% (equivalent to 13,817 households), compared to the planned number of 6.60%. A survey made in January 2022 shows that the poverty rate according to the poverty line in the period of 2022 - 2025 in the province is 15.06% (equivalent to 33,036 households).

In 2021, under policy credit programs, the Bank for Social Policies - Hoa Binh Branch granted loans to 33,562 customers with a total value of over VND 1,260 billion to develop production, business, and creating jobs. 

Particularly, 4,506 poor households borrowed a total amount of VND 193.95 billion, 5,003 near-poor households borrowed VND 220,356 billion, 4,381 newly escaped poverty families borrowed VND 205,528 billion. By the end of December 2021, a total number of 120,947 poor households borrowed loans with a total outstanding balance of nearly VND 3,625 billion.

The province also presented 412,340 free health insurance cards to 13,728 poor people, 9,150 multidimensionally poor people who did not have health insurance, 269,248 ethnic minorities living in disadvantaged areas, 8,783 people living in the especially difficult regions, 16,418 people from near-poor households, 9,033 social welfare beneficiaries and a number of other beneficiaries with a total budget of over VND 331,521 billion. 

The province also supported 30% of health insurance premiums for multidimensionally poor households and 10% of health insurance premiums for near-poor households to ensure 100% of poor and near-poor households to have health insurance.

Hoa Binh province has performed well in supporting poor students through reducing or exempting tuition fee for students in communes and villages with special difficulties; providing free lunch for preschool children and social welfares for preschool teachers; giving priority policy for kindergarten students; implementing boarding policy for high-school, college students... with a total allocated budget of VND 233,217 billion. The province also allocated funds to support electricity bills for poor households and social policy beneficiaries with a total amount of VND 29,846 billion.

Regarding policies to support vocational training and job creation for labor export, the province has directed vocational training institutions to strengthen vocational counseling and enrollment activities. Up to now, the rate of trained workers has reached 57.5%, of which 23.1% have diplomas and certificates. The province created jobs for 16,120 workers, reaching 101% of the yearly plan, and 170 people went abroad to work. The unemployment rate in urban areas fell below 2.9%; the rate of workers in the agricultural and forestry sector fell to 57%.

In addition to lending for economic development, job creation, tuition fee exemption and reduction, the province has built houses for disadvantaged families and poor households through the program called “great solidarity houses”. This is a task identified as a key task, contributing to ensuring social security by the Provincial Fund for the Poor's Management Board.

In 2021, the Provincial Fund for the Poor received nearly VND 19 billion from individuals and agencies inside and outside the province. The fund was used to build, repair houses for poor households and support livelihood models to help reduce poverty sustainably, as well as build infrastructure works for poor communities to have a better life.

In the first four months of 2022, capital from the Fund for the Poor was allocated by the Provincial Fatherland Front Committee to build 69 houses for poor households, with an average funding of VND 30 million per house. The total value of newly built and repaired houses for poor households in the province was VND 2.1 billion.

To well implement the constructon of houses for poor households under the “great solidarity houses” program, ensuring that the assistance given to the right subjects, the quality of the works, creating consensus among the people, the Provincial Fatherland Front Committees instructed the Fatherland Front Committees of lower levels to strictly comply with regulations, from the selection of beneficiary households to fund management, disbursement, work quality supervision, acceptance and handover. 

Especially, thanks to the attention of Party committees, authorities and communities at all levels, social assistance work in the province has achieved many positive results. Regular and unscheduled assistance has been deployed in a timely manner, thereby, gradually improving the lives of disadvantaged people, helping them integrate into the community, contributing to ensuring social security in the locality.

Implementing Decree 20/2022/ND-CP dated March 15, 2021 of the Government and legal documents, in the first 6 months of the year, Hoa Binh province has timely provided social allowances for 31,367 people. Of which, there are 176 orphans, 70 people living with HIV from poor or near-poor households without stable income, 1,715 single mothers and fathers from poor or near-poor households; 11,447 elderly people, 13,097 people with severe and especially severe disabilities; 4,824 children under 3 years old belong to poor households, near-poor households in extremely difficult areas.

The implementation of policies on community-based support and care for the elderly and disabled, social assistance and rehabilitation for the mentally ill and mentally disturbed, and the care of children with special circumstances was paid special attention by the local authorities to help these subjects stabilize their life.

So far, health insurance cards have been issued to 97,869 elderly people. The number of elderly people who are periodically examined and have health monitoring records in their wards, communes and townships is 45,467 people.

The number of elderly people currently enjoying policies for people with meritorious services to the country (Vietnamese heroic mothers, people with meritorious services to the revolution, armed forces heroes, wounded soldiers, sick soldiers) is 6,075 people.

Striving to reduce poverty rate to 13.49% in 2022

In 2022, Hoa Binh province aims to reduce the rate of poor households according to the 2022 - 2025 standard to 13.49% (equivalent to 2% reduction). To achieve this goal, Hoa Binh province will continue to promote propaganda, raise awareness of responsibilities and roles of party organizations and government agencies from the provincial to the grassroots level, of the social community and the poor households in the implementation of the National Target Program on Sustainable Poverty Reduction.

At the same time, the province will continue to focus on developing essential infrastructure by local sources; designing additional specific poverty reduction policies to support the poor, ethnic minorities living in extremely difficult communes, villages and hamlets.

The province will also implement synchronously poverty reduction mechanisms and policies, promoting activities to support the poor, near-poor people, newly escaped poverty and ethnic minorities; build and replicate livelihood models for sustainable and effective poverty reduction.

Many social resources have been mobilized to promote sustainable poverty reduction, especially the National Target Program on Building New Rural Areas. With the attention and coordination of all related agencies at all levels, poverty reduction programs and projects have been effectively implemented in terms of infrastructure investment in service of production, seed support, capital lending, and vocational training, tuition fee waiver.

The Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs Department of Hoa Binh province has also proposed the Provincial People's Committee to issue and implement a plan of social assistance and rehabilitation for related subjects in the period 2021 – 2030; to adjust the level subsidies for social welfare beneficiaries who are receiving monthly allowances in the community and nurtured at the Social Work Center. These are also key solutions to ensure social security in a stable, long-term and sustainable manner.

Most recently, the Provincial People's Committee issued documents guiding the implementation of a number of projects under the National Target Program for socio-economic development in ethnic minority and mountainous areas. Specifically, regarding land support for production, the subjects are poor ethnic minority households living in ethnic minority and mountainous areas; Poor households of Kinh ethnic group living in communes and villages with special difficulties in ethnic minority areas and mountainous areas, living on agriculture and forestry, who do not have production land, and need land support for production. Accordingly, the local government considers to give support directly with land.

Poor ethnic minority households living in ethnic minority and mountainous areas; poor households of Kinh ethnic group living in extremely difficult communes and villages in ethnic minority areas and mountainous areas who make a living from agriculture and forestry without or lack of more than 50% of production land according to the norm and need for job change or support for production land, but production land cannot be arranged, will be supported for job change.

Support for job change is also provided for households specified in Clause 2, Article 8 of this circular. They will be supported in the purchase of machinery and agricultural tools, providing agricultural production services, vocational training, and shifting to work in the fields of cultivation, animal husbandry, production and other business.

Job creation for workers has been promoted. Related agencies in Hoa Binh province have reviewed aspirations and guided employees to apply for a judicial record to work in Korea, directed specialized agencies to develop a Resolution of the Provincial People's Council on policies to support loans for workers to work abroad under a contract in the period of 2022 - 2026.

Quynh Nga