Vietnam can be proud to have helped 6 million people escape poverty from 2012 to 2016 under national multidimensional poverty standards, according to Country Director of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Vietnam Caitlin Wiesen. 

Students at a primary school in Vietnam 

She made the statement during a seminar in Hanoi on October 17 to announce the Vietnam’s Human Development Indices (HDI): Statistical Update 2018. 

The report said Vietnam’s HDI is in the high-medium group. With 0.694 point in 2017, Vietnam ranked 116th out of the 189 countries and needs to earn 0.006 point to be among high HDI group. 

Vietnam performed well in health care and education but remained slow in income growth. The average life expectancy is 76.5 years, ranking second in Asia-Pacific, behind the Republic of Korea. Meanwhile, the average school time is 8.2 years, higher than the average in East Asia and the Pacific. 

The global multidimensional poverty statistics 2018 showed that Vietnam’s index was 0.0197, ranking 31st out of the 105 countries. Its multidimensional poverty rate was 5 percent, higher than almost all countries in East Asia and the Pacific, only behind Thailand (0.79 percent) and China (4.02 percent). 

About gender inequality index, Vietnam ranked 67th out of the 160 countries. With 0.304 point, near the average of countries with high HDI (0.289), Vietnam needs to narrow gap in education and increase the rate of female university graduates in science, mathematics, mechanical engineering and construction (now at 15.4 percent). 

The statistical update also provides data about forest coverage, carbon dioxide emission, mortality and biodiversity. 

Vietnam ranked seventh out of the 181 countries in terms of forest coverage, and 80th out of the 189 countries in carbon dioxide emission, and 165th out of the 189 countries in red list index.-VNA