Sustainable poverty reduction during past two years

The information was revealed during an online conference chaired by Deputy Prime Minister Vu Van Ninh at the Government’s Headquarters in Ha Noi on April 22.

An amount of VND24,000 billion (US$1.1 billion) from the State budget has helped the poor, ethnic minorities, under-six children, and students access free heath insurance in the past two years.

Nearly VND6,000 billion (US$288 million) from the State budget have funded the implementation of a policy that exempts over four million poor and ethnic minority students from school fees.

Since 2010, over one million people have been supported with short-term vocational training, in which nearly 40,000 people from poor households in rural areas have escaped from poverty.

Additionally, over one million poor households borrowed loans worth VND12 million (US$576) each from the Government’s preferential credit to develop the production while 1.9 million households gained access the credit to pay for their children’s studies.

In its poverty reduction policies for 2013 and the years beyond, the Central Steering Committee for Sustainable Poverty Reduction has set to gradually decrease subsidies to encourage the poor’s activeness and efforts to escape poverty.

The conference pointed out shortcomings and obstacles in implementing the sustainable poverty reduction programmes, as well as lessons learned from the implementation at the grass-roots levels in a bid to work out more effective and practical solutions for the future./.

By Ngoc Van