VietNamNet Bridge – HCM City targets establishing a minimum VND8 million (US$410) in annual income per capita for all families, according to the city Department of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs.


Representatives of the Vinaconex's Youth Union and the Ministry of Planning and Investment present blankets to ethnic minority children in the northern mountainous province of Yen Bai's Van Chan Boarding School. (Photo: VNS)
The city aims to help nearly 20,000 needy families escape poverty and reduce last year's poverty rate of 5.7 per cent to 5.4 per cent.


To reach the target, the city will continue its preferential loan programmes and financial support policies.


These include tuition exemption and provision of scholarships and health insurance cards for poor families, including those with an annual income below VND8 million per capita.


In addition, it will improve vocational consulting and training as well as create jobs for the poor, and offer job training for 1,200 labourers.


At least 10,000 new jobs will be created, and 100 people will be sent to other countries to work.


As part of its poverty reduction scheme, the city will continue to upgrade and build charity houses for poor families who cannot afford housing.


At the end of last year, the city had 105,326 poor families with an annual income below VND12 million ($600) per capita, a decline in number from the beginning of the year when there were 130,917.

Tet gifts for the poor

Businesses and social organisations have responded to the Government's appeal to be charitable and donate gifts to impoverished citizens during the Tet festival.

The National Oil and Gas Group gave 100 wheelchairs to invalids in Bac Ninh Province.

Staff at the Bank for Investment and Development of Viet Nam, BIDV, have also donated VND16 billion (US$762 thousands) to the poor and people affected by natural disaster nationwide.

A BIDV official said this was the third year the bank had implemented the ‘Tet Gift for the Poor' programme.

Trade union president of HCM City's Industrial Parks and Processing Zones Nguyen Van Khai said about 5,000 workers would be given Tet gifts before the holidays. About 1,000 free trips would be available to workers who will be travelling back to their native provinces to celebrate Tet.

HCM City Trade Union would pay half and the rest would be provided by businesses. The programmes is estimated to cost about VND3 billion ($142,000).

Head of the HCM City Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs' Labour and Salary Department Nguyen Thi Dan said the department had requested businesses to pay sufficient salaries and bonuses to their labourers before Tet.


Of the total number, nearly 30,000 families have an annual income below VND8 million.


Last year, the city provided a total of nearly VND3 trillion ($153.8 million) in loans to poor families, and more than 1,900 labourers received vocational training, an increase of more than 1,000 over 2009.

Fifty-one poor labourers were sent to work abroad, including in Slovakia, Malaysia, Japan and South Korea, and nearly 320,000 health insurance cards were provided to poor families.


The city also presented more than 120,000 gifts valued at VND36 billion ($1.8 million) to poor families for the Canh Dan (Tiger) Tet holiday last year.


By the end of 2010, 25,542 families rose above the poverty line. At least 76 per cent of that number could do so by receiving loans from the city or by taking part in the city's vocational training and job creation programmes.


Nearly 2,800 poor families raised their annual income above VND6 million per capita; 46,295 above VND8 million per capita; and 34,642 began to earn more than VND10 million per capita.


VietNamNet/Viet Nam News