Making contribution to realizing national objective of employment creation

11/01/2005
Facing the situation that employment has become a critical, not merely economic, but also social, political issue of the country, on 11 April, 1992, the Council of Ministers, now called Government issued Resolution N0 120/HDBT on employment stating that “employment creation is the responsibility of the State, different sectors, social organizations and each laborer”.

The State has formed a national fund for employment creation which mainly comes from the State budget and other funding sources in order to provide loans support to households, household businesses, with priority given to projects that recruite handicapped labours and a large quota of female laborers. As an important member of the program, o­n an annual basis, the Vietnam Women’s Union defines a specific plan for employment creation, allocates the funds and provides instructions for WU of different levels to exercise proper management of the funds, to carry out periodical monitoring, to promptly deal with arising problems... At the beginning,loans were released with small size focusing o­n supporting poor provinces, where there is lacking of employment and capital, those having potentials for developing forestry, growing fruit trees, growing industrial plants with high economic values, raising poultry, processing aquatic products... Now the funds are invested into business oriented projects: production, raising animals with high economic values, promoting local traditional occupations, supporting MSE start-up and development, thus making contribution to economic restructuring in agriculture and in rural areas. VWU has formed women’s credit & savings groups to provide loans from the National Fund for Employment Creation.

 

Over the last 3 years, the Central WU has renovated the management style aiming at increasing the effectiveness of the loan use. Applying the program management software and requesting the provincial/city WU to state their loans fund needs, VWU allocates the fund to the localities appropriately which is responsive to the needs of each locality. The loan fund is allocated to proper sector, less risky business activities for generating more employment. The proper management of the loan fund helps to avoid the fund stagnancy.

 

Annually, disbursements of loans collected by VWU always exceeds the target (130%) compared to the intersectoral plan. The rate of the arrear is below the acceptable o­ne (0.5%). The national fund for employment handled by VWU has exerted positive socio-economic impacts o­n the beneficiaries. Tens of thousands of families and women have escaped from poverty thanks to the loans investment. Many of them have improved their knowledge, capabilities and status in the family and the society, making contribution to the economic development of the country.

 

However, there exists problems to be tackled in the next coming period: the loans are still released in small amounts, somewhere the loan funds are even evenly distributed to households which limits the effectiveness of the loan use; There have not been found solutions for disbursing loans to remote areas; There are still a lot of difficulties in providing and managing loans of big size due to lacking of staff specifically responsible for managing the program in certain provinces, districts. Moreover, the cross-sectoral collaboration remains loose in some localities thus resulting in negative influence o­n the effectiveness of the loan management and loan use.

 

For the coming period, to achieve better results of the program, the Central WU has mapped out an objective of supporting women in household economic development, economic restructuring with an orientation of farm economy and small business development; Supporting women to develop SMEs, contributing to creating employment for women; Developing network and improving the quality of vocational training and employment creation, making contribution to realizing the national targets in employment creation and vocational training for women.

 

To achieve the above-mentioned objective, it is necessary to profoundly make use of the national funds to support women in business start-up and MSEs development in the plain, midlands, towns, township areas, traditional craft villages; Speed up the economic and labor restructuring aiming at reducing the labor engaged in agriculture, in rural areas, increasing the labor engagaged in industrial, construction and services sectors, work out measures for channeling loans funds to the remote, mountainous areas, supporting women to develop production, services and farm economy; Mobilize funds from the national fund for employment creation and other, national as well as international sources in order to increase loans for women's business development and fund for training activities; Pilotly apply loans provision for group entrepreneurship. Conduct training o­n effective management and usage of loans for at least 80% of the women borrowers of the national fund; Closely integrate the loan provision with agricultural, forestry, fishery extension, technical transferring, invest loans in key areas, key sectors according to each locality and put an end to the even distribution of loan funds as well as the spreading the funds without consideration of needs assessment and loan use effectiveness.

 

 

Achievements of the program gained by VWU after 10-year implementation

 

- Number of projects approved by the Central of VWU: 2,320

- Number of laborers having employment created by the program: 163,088

- Total loans fund disbursed: VND 181,521,100,000

The Family and Social Affairs Dept.

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