Vietnam to Spend VND39.72T on Supporting Ethnic Minorities

The Committee on Ethnic Minority Affairs proposed spending VND39.718 trillion ($1.82 billion) to help ethnic minorities in the period of 2016-2020, the Phap Luat Vietnam newspaper reported on June 16. The supporting policies for ethnic minorities will focus on three main points comprised of supporting of residential and production lands and potable water; arranging and stabilizing of population in difficult areas; and supporting credits. After reviewing and hearing feedback from different agencies, the committee will submit the plan to the government for approval. Vietnam has around 5.2 million poor people or 5.7% of the country’s total population. Ethnic minorities account for 14% of the country’s population but account for nearly 50% of the poor people. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs has proposed the budget for Poverty Reduction Program for 2016-2020 period to be VND42.8T ($1.9 billion). The goals of the program are to accelerate poverty reduction, limit poverty relapse rate, create opportunities for poor people to access basic social services, and reduce poverty rate by 1% to 1.5% each year in the period between 2016 and 2020, in which poor communes and wards will reduce by the rate of 4% a year. Vietnam said that it spent an estimated VND864 trillion ($41.14 billion) on fighting against poverty during 2005-2012. The programs over the years have benefited 531,000 poor households, reducing the poverty rate to 7.8% in 2013 from 22% in 2005. (Phap Luat Vietnam – Vietnam Law June 16 p2)