Vietnam’s poverty rate is forecast to fall to 7.6% by the end of this year and to 2% in 2014 from 9.6% at end-2012, the Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs (MoLISA) said a at meeting in Hanoi Sept 23. The event aimed to review the ministry’s budget spending in 2013, make budget estimates for next year and seek comments for changing a number of laws. Participants highlighted the MoLISA’s achievements in vocational training, job generation, child protection and preferential policies for the poor and social beneficiaries. Data by the MoLISA showed that the country employed 990,000 people in the first eights months, meeting 62% of the year’s target and over one million workers are likely to be trained this year. However, many delegates noted that poverty reduction remains unsustainable with deep concern about the widening gap between the rich and the poor and between urban areas and rural ones. The government’s General Statistics Office (GSO) said in its report that the wealthy was 9.2 times as rich as the poor in 2011, up from 8.9 times in 2008. (vov.vn Sept 24)
