The Vietnamese Prime Minister has decided to spend nearly VND43.5 trillion (US$2.7 billion) for the 2006-10 National Strategic Program for Poverty Reduction, up 7 per cent against the 2001-05 figure.
Minister of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs (MoLISA) Nguyen Thi Hang unveiled the information at a press conference on the program and phase II of Program 135, held by the ministry, the Vietnam National Committee, and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) on March 6 in Hanoi.
The sum will come from the State budget, at least 1 per cent of local budgets nationwide, and the international community, Hang said.
The program targets poverty rate reduction to between 10 per cent and 11 per cent by 2010, from 22 per cent in 2005, and is expected to increase poor people’s incomes by 1.45 times compared with 2005, and help 50 per cent of underprivileged and remote communes escape difficult situations.
In the 2006-2010 period, the program will be supported with new policies on legal support and monitoring activities. It will also be supplemented with new projects, including projects providing vocational training courses for poor people and building fundamental infrastructure facilities in underprivileged communes in coastal areas and islands.
Besides, the program will assist the needy with educational and vocational training fees and health insurance cards, while implementing credit policies for poor households, allocating farming land, supplying clean water for poor ethnic minorities, and carrying out agriculture, forestry and fishery promotion programs.
The PM also agreed to pour VND16 trillion (US$1 billion) into phase II of Program 135, said Ksor Phuoc, head of the committee.
“The 2006-10 poverty reduction program and phase II of Program 135 are important factors for the socio-economic development program of Vietnam,” John Hendra, representative of the UNDP to Vietnam said at the conference.
He added that international organizations will support around US$300 million for the phase through the UNDP.
In the 2001-05 period, the national poverty reduction program was completed at the end of 2004, one year ahead of schedule, helping 34,000 households nationwide escape poverty annually. (Vietnam Economic Times, Pioneer, VNA)
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