Hanoi (VNA) – Millions ofworking-age people with disabilities who have the ability to work are in needof help to access soft loans to pursue vocational training and employment butthere is an absence of a source of soft loans exclusively designed for them.

The problem was brought to light at aworkshop on policy and credit solutions to develop vocational training andemployment for persons with disabilities and promote their products in Hanoi onApril 12. The workshop was co-held by the Ministry of Labour, Invalids andSocial Affairs (MoLISA) and Vietnam Bank for Social Policies (VBSP).

Statistics by the MoLISa show thatVietnam is home to about 8 million people with disabilities aged above 5 yearsold, most of whom (87.2 percent) are living in rural areas. Of the disabledpopulation, some 65 percent are at working age; about 40 percent have theability to work; but only 30 percent are actually working to earn a living forthemselves and their families.

Dinh Thi Quynh Nga, a disabled woman anddirector of a Hanoi-based handicraft cooperative which employs dozens ofworkers with disabilities, said the workers there have acquired necessaryworking skills but they all experience financial difficulties.

“People with disabilities who want totake part in the cooperative must make a contribution to the charter capital,but all of them are living under difficult circumstances and dependent on theirfamily,” she said, adding that it is the reason why it is hard for thecooperative to expand.

The VBSP is providing people withdisabilities and businesses who employ people with disabilities with loans sourcedby the National Fund for Job Assistance and the Nippon Foundation of Japan butthere is yet a source of low-cost loans exclusively designed for people withdisabilities, said MoLISA Deputy Minister Le Tan Dung.

Echoing Dung’s view, VBSP DeputyDirector General Nguyen Van Ly noted that there is an absence of a special mechanismto give soft loans to people with disabilities; as a result, very few peoplewere able to access low-cost loans.

The VBSP reported that last year, thebanks offered soft loans to four new projects employing a large number ofpersons with disabilities and some 2,360 projects run by persons withdisabilities, which provide employment to a total of 2,540 people withdisabilities. Its disabled clients were estimated at more than 11,000 people.

Ly suggested the government to reviewlegal documents on people with disabilities, increase annual funding for theNational Fund for Job Assistance and set up a special fund providing low-costloans to people with disabilities and employers of people with disabilities.

He also advised the local governments toallocate funding for such type of loans and closely work with the VBSP toimprove the quality of social quality credit services for disabled people.-VNA