The Vietnamese government spent roughly VND360 billion ($17.14 million) on implementing social security policies in the first three months of this year, the Ministry of Finance said. Of the sum, VND272.7 billion was used to support electricity prices for poor households and VND86.6 billion for supporting health insurance services for near-poor people. During the period, the ministry also allocated 30,458 tons of rice from the national reserves for famine relief in the disadvantaged areas hit by natural disasters and diseases. Vietnam poured nearly VND84 trillion into social security programs in 2011, rising 20% from a year earlier, the ministry added. In 2011, economic uncertainties, high inflation plus grave consequences of natural disasters made lives of ordinary people, especially the poor, more difficult. Thus, the government adopted Resolution No. 11 on socio-economic management, which spelled out tightened financial policies, but focused on social welfare. Thanks to good polices on social security and poverty reduction, living conditions of the poor have been ensured fundamentally in recent years, said Ngo Truong Thi, head of the Office for Poverty Reduction Program Coordination of the Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs (MOLISA). In 2012, the government set a target of lowering the poverty rate to 10% from 12% in the previous year, he added. (Ha Noi Moi – New Hanoi April 5 p4)
