HA NOI – Solid houses have been built for nearly 9,000 of 240,000 poor households in the Mekong Delta provinces as the first step to eliminating make-shift houses in the area, the program's Steering Committee for the south-west region said. Each poor household was to receive around $730 support to build a new house, to cost a total of $175 million – $81 million to come from the State budget, the remainder from loans, the committee said. Provinces had created conditions for the poor to expand production and trade and to receive support in various programs such as safe water, land, vocations and social security activities. In the past three years, the Ministry of Labor, Invalid and Social Affairs has invested nearly $49 million in job promotion and vocation in the delta area. Around 100,000 poor laborers are trained and provided with jobs each year in the area. (Vietnam News Aug 17)
