Vietnam Aims to Lower Poverty Rate to 10% This Year

The Vietnamese government has set a target of cutting the poverty rate to 10% in 2012 from 12% in 2011, the Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs (MOLISA) said. This year’s poverty reduction program will focus on building infrastructure works and creating jobs for local residents in disadvantaged areas. In 2011, economic uncertainties, high inflation plus grave consequences of natural disasters made lives of ordinary people, especially the poor, more difficult. Thus, the government adopted Resolution No. 11 on socio-economic management, which spelled out tightened financial policies, but focused on social welfare.  Last year, over $150 million were allocated to social welfare, including aids, subsidies of health insurance, tuition fees and housing and preferential loans for the poor, said Ngo Truong Thi, head of the Office for Poverty Reduction Program Coordination of the Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs (MOLISA). In 2011, the government doubled state budgets for the poverty reduction program in 62 poor communes, under which nearly 2.5 million people were provided with subsidies, vocation training and employment to stand on their own feet.  Over the past decade, Vietnam’s poverty reduction efforts have been contributed by the international community. At a consultative group meeting of donors for Vietnam last Dec in Hanoi, international organizations pledged to support Vietnam’s poverty reduction activities by 2015. The European Union, the World Bank, the United Nations Development Program and other partners said they are working out a framework of activities to reduce poverty in Vietnam’s most disadvantaged areas based on the Vietnamese government’s plan. They aim to help Vietnam develop its human resources, provide technical assistance for the decentralization of power, and enhance transparency and publicity in poverty reduction implementation. Earlier, MOLISA Minister Pham Thi Hai Chuyen said the Vietnamese government would not cut investment for poverty reduction programs despite public investment cut and efforts in inflation control. Vietnam aims to cut the poverty rate to between 4% and 5% by 2020. (vov.vn Jan 28, Tin Tuc online – News Jan 26)