Accordingly, loans to poor households and students under Decision No. 157/2007 decreased from 6.6% to 6.24%/year; loans to production and business households and traders in underprivileged areas decreased from 9% to 7.8%/year; and the rural clean water and sanitation program dropped from 9% to 8.4%/year. The reduction in interest rates for policy credit programs helps hundreds of thousands of households ease their interest burden and gain more opportunities to invest in production and business. According to statistics from the Vietnam Bank for Social Policies (VBSP) Hai Phong branch, the bank's transaction offices are currently implementing 10 policy credit programs. The simultaneous reduction in interest rates for many credit programs for the poor by the VBSP will provide an opportunity for transaction offices to promptly propose interest rate reductions for tens of thousands of customers, encouraging them to expand production and business.