Vietnamese Deputy Prime Minister Vu Van Ninh has called for more efforts to quicken the implementation of a rapid and sustainable poverty elimination program in the poorest districts. The Deputy PM asked relevant agencies to support local authorities in 61 disadvantaged districts to prepare progress reports on their program’s implementation. In Dec 2008, the government approved a resolution to help the country’s poorest districts alleviate poverty and hunger with the aim to improve living conditions of local people. Under the program over the past three years, the poverty rate fell by 5% per year and the annual per capita income of residents in these districts more than doubled from VND2.5 million ($119) in 2006 to VND6 million in 2010. During the same period, over 97% of makeshift houses were replaced with permanent ones. On Mar 28, the Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs announced the result of a national survey in 2011 showing that 2.58 million households are poor and 1.53 million deems near-poor in the country of 90-million population. Of the total, the northwestern region reports the highest rate of poor households with 33.02%, followed by the northeastern region with 21.01%, the Central Highlands, 18.62%. The Southeastern region has the lowest rate of 1.7%. Vietnam also spent roughly VND360 billion on social security policies in the first three months of this year, focusing on supporting electricity prices for the poor and VND86.6 billion for health insurance services for near-poor people. The European Union (EU) has pledged to fund $126 million for Vietnam’s healthcare and poverty reduction projects in the 2012-2013 period. (Nhan Dan – The People April 5, baodientu.chinhphu.vn April 4)
