WB-led CG Meeting to Focus on Sustainable Poverty Reduction in Vietnam

International donors will gather at the 2012 mid-term Consultative Group (CG) Meeting for Vietnam to be held in the central province of Quang Tri from June 4-5, to seek breakthrough solutions to the country’s sustainable poverty reduction, state media reported. The annual WB-chaired event will focus on measures to combine economic development and poverty reduction; social insurance and natural disaster control. Participants will pay attention to challenges in the national poverty reduction, difficulties in the implementation of policies on poverty reduction and disaster control in the central region as well as share experience with international community, Victoria Kwakwa, Country Director for Vietnam, said. The CG is a forum where Vietnamese government and international donors for development can exchange ideas on economic policies, poverty reduction strategies and effective use of official development assistance (ODA) loan. At the CG held last December, donors pledged $7.386 billion in ODA for Vietnam in 2012. By March 2012, up to 2.58 million households are poor and 1.53 million deems near-poor, showed a national survey by the Vietnam’s Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs. This year, the government set a target of reducing the poverty rate to 10% from 12% in the previous year. (Dau Tu – Investment May 30 p2)