The Vietnamese government has targeted to lower the rate of poor households in the central region to below 10% by 2020 from the current 22%, Deputy Prime Minister Hoang Trung Hai said. Hai made the statement at the closing of the 2012 mid-year Consultative Group (CG) meeting which took place in the central province of Quang Tri from June 4-5. Addressing the event, Deputy PM Hai said that the country’s poverty alleviation programs aimed at central coastal region have showed positive results over the past times. The poverty rate fell sharply from 68.7% in 2002 to 20.4% in 2010. However, it still remains higher than the national average of 14.2%. Local residents have been provided with better access to basic healthcare and education and received considerable benefits from vocational training programs, he elaborated. However, World Bank Country Director for Vietnam Victoria Kwakwa warned that poverty reduction in Vietnam remains an urgent priority as new forms of poverty are emerging, which require new approaches and ideas. She stressed the disaster-prone areas need to combine poverty reduction with natural disaster mitigation because they are closely interlinked. The poverty is both a cause and a consequence of natural calamities. The 14 provinces from Thanh Hoa to Binh Thuan, which are frequently hurt by fierce floods and typhoons, have to suffer an annual loss of hundreds of billions of VND from natural calamities. The government also aims to replace all the makeshift houses in the region with permanent homes by 2015. (Nhan Dan – The People June 6)
