VietNamNet Bridge – Viet Nam plans to annually reduce the national poverty rate by 2 per cent whilst raising income per capita 3.5 times during 2011-20.

More than 2,000 farmers in rural areas in central Quang Nam Province's Duy Xuyen District have been provided with opportunities to raise their incomes by producing bamboo and rattan products. Viet Nam plans to annually reduce the national poverty rate by 2 per cent during the 2011-20 period. (Photo: VNS)

The resolution aims at significantly improving the living conditions of poor people, especially in terms of health care, education, culture, clean water, housing as well as access to basic social services.

General government policies based on poverty reduction include support in production, vocational training, employment generation, increasing income for poor people, education and training, health care and nutrition, housing, access to legal aid services, culture and communication.

Statistics from a 2010 poor household census revealed that Viet Nam had around 3 million poor and 1.6 million near-poor households, according to the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs.

A new poverty standard, issued by the Government in January 2011, is set at VND400,000 (US$20) for rural areas and VND500,000 ($25) for urban areas.

According to new standards, the current number of poor and near-poor households account for 14.5 per cent of the total population.

A recent census showed that northern mountainous Dien Bien Province has the highest rate of poor households (50 per cent), followed by northern Lai Chau, Lao Cai and Ha Giang provinces with poverty rates of between 40-50 per cent.

Five provinces and cities with poverty rates under 5 per cent include HCM City (0.01 per cent), southern Binh Duong Province (0.05 per cent), southern Dong Nai Province (1.45 per cent), southern Ba Ria-Vung Tau Province (4.35 per cent) and Ha Noi (4.97 per cent).

Under the new poverty standards, there are 81 poor districts with poverty rates of over 50 per cent compared to 61 per cent under old poverty standards.

Participants at the launch ceremony agreed that the 2006-10 period reflected the sound determination and efforts of the Government in designing and implementing policies, programmes and projects based on poverty elimination.

However, with Viet Nam becoming a middle-income country, renovations in design, approach and modality in terms of poverty reduction was necessary in order to cope with chronic poverty in certain pockets of the population.

Deputy Minister of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs Nguyen Trong Dam said that the Vietnamese Government hoped to gradually improve and raise the living conditions of its poor people, particularly those in remote, mountainous, island and ethnic minority-inhabited areas.

Deputy Country Director of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Viet Nam Christophe Bahuet said that, given the current context of global and domestic uncertainty and high inflation, poor people in Viet Nam were suffering an even heavier burden in their daily lives.

"Quoted statistics, revealing 14.5 per cent of all households are poor, are unlikely to truly reflect the multifaceted nature of poverty and the extreme and complex difficulties poor people face in Viet Nam today," he said.

"Attention has been drawn to the large population of rural poor and vulnerable groups in need of social security in order to mitigate and protect them against the uncertainty of new socio-economic context," he added.

He said that the current resolution reflected a determination in using particular poverty reduction programmes in an efficient and effective manner, prioritising sources of investment from other national programmes and ODA projects in order to allow significant investments in the poorest districts, communes and villages.

"The Resolution marks a shift from the ad hoc provision of poverty reduction interventions towards a more mainstreamed, universal and comprehensive approach. I believe this will result in a better and more efficient use of the scare resources while improving the accountability of each agency and local government in designing and delivering the best possible poverty reduction interventions," he said.

"We hope to have further policy discussions with the Steering Committee of the National Programmes for Poverty Reduction and other concerned ministries and sectors in order to further discuss national development directions to enhance opportunities for the poor to participate fully in the mainstream development of Viet Nam," he said.

VietNamNet/Viet Nam News