Vietnam’s capital city of Hanoi has helped build and upgrade nearly 30,000 houses for the poor over the past 12 years, according to the municipal Fatherland Front Committee. Local authorities have provided the needy people with seedlings, soft loans, materials and tuition fees during the time. In 2011, the Hanoi Fund for The Poor raised VND42 billion ($2 million) for building and upgrading 3,780 houses and 902 charity households as well as offering healthcare services for 1,740 disadvantaged people. This year, the city aims to create jobs for more than 30,000 laborers and provide soft loans for 70,000 disadvantaged students in a bid to ensure social security. With around 81,000 poor households and 34,000 near-poor ones, Hanoi needs an estimated VND100 trillion yearly to cut the poverty rate by 1.4%-1.8% a year, Chairman of the committee Dang Viet Quan said. 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 from 4.48% in 2010. Vietnam seemed to have poured big investments into less important projects in the context thousands of local residents are facing economic uncertainties, experts said. Typical examples include the $100 million Hanoi Museum, built since 2010 but not yet open to public as there is nothing to display and a recent project to build a $540 million National History Museum (Kinh Te & Do Thi –Economy & Urban Sept 12 p3)
