Vietnam’s Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung has approved a project costing $110 million funded mainly by the World Bank to help reduce poverty in northern mountainous provinces in the 2015-2018 period. The total, which includes $100 million from the bank and the rest from Vietnam’s reciprocal capital, will be used to improve production capacity of local communities for better livelihood of residents. With four components, the project will focus on enhancing business innovations to serve socio-economic development in the provinces of Lao Cai, Yen Bai, Lai Chau, Son La, Dien Bien and Hoa Binh. Vietnam still roughly 4.8 million poor households, or around 7% of the total population. The northwest tops regions nationwide for the rate of poor households at 25%, followed by the northeast with 15%. Dien Bien takes the lead with the poverty rate of 35,22%, Lai Chau 27,22%, Son La 27,01%, and Yen Bai 25,38%, statistics by the Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs said in 2013 showed. (Thoi Bao Kinh Te Viet Nam – Vietnam Economic Times Dec 11 p3)
