Authorities in Vietnam’s capital city of Hanoi have set the target of lowering the rate of poor households by 1.5%-2% or 2,320 poor households this year, compared to 116,000 needy families as of Oct 2011, heard a recent meeting in the city. Nguyen Thi Bich Ngoc, vice chairman of the city made the statement at the meeting on policy credit activities during the year. Under the plan, Hanoi aims to create jobs for more than 30,000 laborers and provide soft loans for 70,000 disadvantaged students in a bid to ensure the best social security. She emphasized the need for poverty reduction, especially amid the economic uncertainties by saying that the more economy difficult, the gap between the rich and the poor gets larger. Hanoi is estimated to need VND100 trillion yearly to cut the poverty rate by 1.4%-1.8% a year, Dang Viet Quan, chairman of the Hanoi Fatherland Front, earlier said, adding that local authorities last year spent VND197.5 billion ($9.41 million) to help build and repair houses for poor households. The capital city will spend VND5 trillion from its budget to support the poor and near-poor people from now up to 2015 with the aim to cut the poverty rate to 2% by 2015. Vietnam is seemed to have poured big investments into less important projects in the context thousands of local residents are living in miserable situation, experts said. (Ha Noi Moi Mar 26 p1)
