Vietnam Learns Brazil Experience in Poverty Reduction

Vietnamese Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Thien Nhan has paid a visit to Brazil to learn from the American country’s experience in sustainable poverty reduction, state media reported. The Deputy PM’s visit from April 16-18 was part of a program to survey experience in poverty reduction in Brazil held by the World Bank and the Vietnamese Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs (MoLISA) in collaboration with Brazilian partners. In Brasilia, Nhan heard experience in sustainable poverty reduction from Brazilian ministries of social development, hunger prevention and education through measures, including money subsidies for school children, healthcare supports to break the poverty cycle; and vocational training for the youth. Under the program, Nhan also toured Rio de Janeiro, which is the first state to implement the national poverty reduction program. He also visited establishments registered to Bolsa Familia, the program providing allowances for the poor, and the management system and consultancy units to disadvantaged people or victims of violence. The Deputy PM stressed that the Vietnamese government gives high priority to poverty reduction and has obtained achievements in the field that were recognized by nations worldwide. He hailed Brazil’s efforts in reducing poverty, saying that Brazil built a national database on the poor, in order to effectively implement work relating to poverty reduction, health care and education improvement for the poor. On this occasion, MoLISA Deputy Minister Doan Mau Diep and Deputy Minister of Social Development and Hunger Prevention Romulo Paes de Sousa signed an action plan to realize the memorandum of understanding on fighting poverty signed by the two countries on July 10, 2008 in Hanoi. Thanks to the Brazilian government’s policies on combining economic development and poverty reduction, about 28 million Brazilian people escaped from poverty and 16 million others remain under the poverty line. The country is striving to become the first developing country in the world to meet its poverty reduction target according to the first UN millennium development goal. On Mar 28, the Vietnamese Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs announced the result of a national survey in 2011 showed that 2.58 million households are poor and 1.53 million deems near-poor. In 2012, the government set a target of lowering the poverty rate to 10% from 12% in the previous year, he added. (Tin Tuc - News April 20 p16)