(VOVworld) - In 3 years, the Prime Minister’s housing assistance program has built more than 507,000 houses. VOV reporter Ngoc Anh looks at the initial success of this program.
On December 12, 2008, the Prime Minister issued a Decision on housing assistance for poor households in rural areas. 4 years later, the number of houses built for the poor had reached 507,000, exceeding the target of 500,000. 224,000 houses were for ethnic minorities. Nine provinces have reached their housing assistance target two years in advance. According to Trinh Dinh Dung, Minister of Construction and Deputy Head of the Central Steering Committee for Housing Policy and the Real Estate Market, this program has been the biggest and most effective housing assistance effort of the national renewal process: "The program shows the Party, State and Government’s concern for people’s lives. It has significantly improved people’s lives".
Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung says the program’s success has been due to the support and engagement of Political system, enterprises, and public. He says the Party and State have always paid attention to housing for social policy beneficiaries and poor people: "The program helps build people’s trust in the Party and State’s leadership and exemplifies Vietnam’s tradition of solidarity and helping each other".
Dang Viet Thuan, Vice Chairman of the Thai Nguyen provincial People’s Committee, said: "This is the most successful program ever in our province. The program was carried out quickly and enhances people’s trust in the senior leadership".
The program involves the entire society, with the State providing 30 percent of the loans, the Bank of Social Policy putting up one third at preferential interest rates, and the rest mobilized from enterprises, villages and the poor households themselves.
After this initial success, the government has asked the Ministry of Construction and related ministries and sectors to complete the program’s 2nd phase from 2013-2015 by building another 500,000 houses.