Deputy Prime Minister Vu Van Ninh called for more efforts to promote
sustainable poverty reduction during an online conference held last week
to assess the preliminary results three years into implementation of
Government Decree 30A to reduce poverty in the country's 62 poorest
districts.
According to Minister of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs Pham Thi
Hai Chuyen, the percentage of poor households in these 62 districts is
expected to fall to 55 percent by the end of 2011. The average income
per year increased from 2.5 million VND (120 USD) per year in 2006 to 6
million VND (285 USD) in 2010.
These results reflected the
significant investment from the Government, the National Assembly and
provincial and local authorities at all levels, said officials at the
conference.
More than 8,500 billion VND (404 million USD)
were allocated from the national budget for the programme between
2008-11. The Prime Minister had also instructed the implementation of
many programmes, ODA-funded projects and use of Government bonds to
reduce poverty in these districts, totalling about 22,000 billion VND
(1.04 billion USD).
For the 2011-15 period, officials said
the programme would aim at reducing the percentage of poor households to
under 35 percent according to the new poverty level.
In
Vietnam , poor households in rural areas are considered those with an
average monthly income below 400,000 VND (18 USD). Near-poor households
in rural areas earn an average income of 401,000-520,000 VND (20-26 USD)
per month.
Other tasks include improving the capacity of
local residents and communities to promote the efficiency of important
infrastructure projects, better exploiting natural resources, assisting
residents in finding output markets for their products and increasing
the percentage of trained rural workers. The efforts to promote
sustainable poverty reduction during the next period would be tied with
efforts to promote new rural areas, according to officials.
Speaking
at the conference, Ninh stressed that Decree 30A showed that the
Government and Party considered the promotion of sustainable poverty
reduction as among their top priorities.
He instructed
ministries and Government agencies at all levels to further assess the
implementation of Decree 30a, especially in supporting production in
these districts. These districts tended to be located in isolated
locations, therefore poverty reduction efforts must be carried out
comprehensively and permanently for the long term, he said.
Ninh
asked all localities to finish their zoning plans, which are important
for poverty reduction programmes. So far, zoning plans have only been
approved for 34 districts. All localities needed to find better
production models, increase capacity to support local industries and
maximise the use of available funds, he said./.
