(VOV) - The Party and State give top priority to reducing poverty and ensuring social welfare, affirmed Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung. Addressing Monday's conference in Hanoi to review ten years of the Vietnam Bank for Social Policies (VBSP) activities, PM Dung praised the bank’s role in mobilizing financial sources and effectively implementing State credit programmes, thus helping to reduce poverty and raise people’s standard of living.He highly valued the successful management and disbursement of credit loans at central and grassroots levels, as well as the cooperation between the VBSP and socio-political organisations such as the Women’s, Farmers’, War Veterans’ and Youth Unions in assisting needy people in society.

The Government leader asked the State Bank of Vietnam, Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Planning and Investment to improve the financial capacity and active role of the VBSP in order to meet the increasing demand for loans for poor households and social policy beneficiaries. Over the past decade, more than 21 million households have been provided with preferential loans channeled through the VBSP, which have helped over 2.9 million poor households escape from poverty and generated jobs for nearly 2.6 million workers.