Vietnam’s National Assembly (NA), the country’s top legislative body, will supervise the enforcement of polices and laws on poverty reduction in the 2005-2012 period under the NA’s supervision program in 2014. This is the first time that the poverty reduction issue will officially be put under supervision by lawmakers under the form of a special subject in the NA’s 7th session next May. In fact, NA deputies have discussed many issues related to poverty alleviation over the past times, but they have yet to find out the satisfactory answers. Experts have urged the Vietnamese government to apply multidimensional poverty measurement to make new policies on poverty alleviation and social welfare from 2015. The measurement takes into account a wide range of factors such as economic growth, education, medical services, social security, housing, and social insurance for the poor. The new anti-poverty approach has set up supportive policies for different groups of the poor. Currently, Vietnam uses an income-only basis to measure poverty, which poses shortcomings in poverty reduction policies as many aspects concerning the demand of the needy people are not considered. So far, up to 2.1 million households in Vietnam are deemed poor and 1.4 million near-poor, accounting for 9.46 and 6.75% of the national population, respectively, according to Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs (MoLISA). The government will spend VND5.03 trillion ($237 million) on the national sustainable poverty reduction program this year, versus VND5.06 trillion last year, in a move to reduce the poverty rate by 2% on year. (Thoi Bao Kinh Te – Economic Times July 10 p3)
