The United Nations Development Program (UNDP), the Vietnamese Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs (MoLISA) and the Institute of Science co-held a conference in Hanoi on Dec. 28 to discuss ways to reduce poverty between 2011 and 2020. Vietnam should select a model that combines growth with reducing poverty, participants said, recommending that the country needs to attach poverty reduction targets to the criteria for building new urban areas, social welfare policies and vocational training programs for rural laborers.
Vietnam cut the number of poor households to 14% in 2008 from 58% in 1993 under its poverty reduction program.
