Vietnam did not annually spend $3.5 billion on feeding the apparatus in charge of poverty reduction, confirmed Deputy Minister of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs Nguyen Trong Dam. He raised objection against the information recently published by some local newspapers and stressed that there was no separate apparatus in charge of the country's poverty reduction. "Poverty reduction is the responsibility of the entire political system," he said. The Government Resolution, dated May 19, 2011, on poverty reduction orientation between 2011 and 2020 clarified the responsibilities of every ministry and sector in co-operating to propose related policies, guide the implementation of policies, and supervise the fields related to poverty reduction, which they were in charge of, he noted. The Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs, for instance, is working as the standing agency of the National Steering Committee for Poverty Reduction, but also takes care of the ministry's own responsibility in the field of vocation training, job generation, and labour exports. The members of the National Steering Committee comprised officials from different ministries and sectors. The members of the committee also included officials from the provincial and district department of labour, invalids and social affairs and also officials in charge of poverty reduction at the commune level. Moreover, they all hold the positions concurrently. "There is no specific State budget earmarked for poverty reduction administration. All the poverty reduction tasks are carried out based on the regular expenditure of the current administrative system," Dam remarked. "Over the past few years, Vietnam has been applauded by the international community for its efforts in poverty reduction. “It is completely incorrect to say that Vietnam had to feed a separate apparatus for poverty reduction, which can lead to misunderstanding among the international community about Vietnam’s poverty reduction efforts,” he added. Regarding Vietnam’s poverty reduction orientation program in the upcoming years, Dam emphasized that the government was currently conducting a mid-term review of its poverty reduction policies for the 2011-15 period and it is also being supervised by the National Assembly. The target for the 2016-20 period is to call on all the ministries and sectors to reach an agreement in designing appropriate policies for sustainable poverty reduction. During the 2016-20 period, focus will also be laid on disadvantaged areas, such as mountainous and ethnic minority-inhabited areas and building a supervision system to encourage the underprivileged people to themselves try to escape poverty. (Vietnam News Mar 7)
