Policies for poor households will be adjusted accordingly.

Policy issues for the poor must be adjusted appropriately, and investment in infrastructure must be made so that they have the conditions to escape poverty.

In the column "People ask - Minister answers" on October 20, Minister of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs Pham Thi Hai Chuyen answered questions about the State's hunger eradication and poverty reduction policies in recent times, as well as proposed solutions to achieve the goal of sustainable poverty reduction.

PV:Dear Minister, in recent times, our Party and State have had many positive policies to promote hunger eradication and poverty reduction. The Prime Minister has approved the Comprehensive Strategy for Growth, Hunger Eradication and Poverty Reduction to 2015. Could you tell us what the current picture of poverty in Vietnam is like after those efforts?

Minister Pham Thi Hai Chuyen:Implementing the poverty reduction target is a consistent policy of our Party and State. The poverty reduction strategy for the 2012-2015 period with many specific policies implemented by localities has created an encouraging picture of poverty reduction. The poverty reduction policy is concretized by the 30a program investing in 62 poor districts, recently expanded to 30 more districts. Secondly, along with infrastructure investment for the poor, direct support policies for the poor have been strengthened. And therefore, the poverty rate basically meets the target set by the Congress, an average of 2%/year, in mountainous districts about 4%/year. To achieve that result is due to the determination of the Party and State.

Minister of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs Pham Thi Hai Chuyen

It can be said that in recent years, the economy has been difficult, the state budget has been difficult, many policies have been cut, but the budget for poverty reduction has not decreased but increased. From 2008-2012, the total resources for poverty reduction goals were 542,000 billion VND, of which the state budget was 205,000 billion VND. In addition, through programs of international organizations, community mobilization, and businesses have participated. The very good news is that if the average in 2008 was only 90,000 billion/year, then only 3 years after the 11th Party Congress, that is, from 2011-2013, the resources for poor households were 364,000 billion, equivalent to 120,000 billion/year.

Thus, affirming the determination of the Party and State to rapidly reduce the poverty rate in our country, determined to complete the millennium goals. International organizations also highly appreciate our efforts. The World Bank has affirmed that Vietnam is a bright spot in implementing the millennium goals, including the poverty reduction goal. We also see that recently, policy issues for the poor must be adjusted appropriately, investing in infrastructure so that they have the conditions to escape poverty, investing in credit loans instead of direct support. Third, due to the characteristics of Vietnam, severe natural disasters, if near-poor households are not cared for, they will fall back into poverty very quickly. In the future, we will develop policies to help people escape poverty sustainably.

PV:Thus, the overview shows that our policies on hunger eradication and poverty reduction have been effective. However, the effectiveness of the policies often lies in the actual implementation in localities. A resident named Thai Van Cang, 58 years old, in Da Te town, Lam Dong province, reflected: His family was a poor household for two consecutive years 2011-2012, but until now has only received a mosquito net, a one-time poor household support of 250,000 VND, 4 quarters of electricity bills, a one-time Tet holiday money of 200,000 VND, his child is a student and is not exempted from tuition fees... Mr. Thai Van Cang said that there are many poor households that do not receive support money, but there are also many situations like his family that have received support money but the support is insufficient, the support is called support, only making the poor people almost "go blind" when demanding their rights. So what does the Minister think about cases like this?

Minister Pham Thi Hai Chuyen:In this case, I would like to say that the poverty reduction policy is not a social subsidy policy but must have policies for each subject. For example, the policy to support the poor in terms of health insurance and housing. Depending on each poor household, there are specific policies. In the case of Mr. Cang, in the Government's Decision to support money for poor students, there are two types. First, if the poor student is an ethnic minority, tuition fees are exempted, if they are only poor households, they can borrow preferential credit to go to school. Thus, Mr. Cang is not an ethnic minority, he can only borrow money to go to school, then after graduating, he can work and have money to pay back the bank according to regulations. If it is a policy for poor households, it must reach poor households, it must reach them fully. In the case that you said it has not been fully implemented, then the policy needs to be re-examined. As I said, not all policies for the poor will benefit one household. There are policies that benefit this household and not that household, as I have analyzed above.

PV:Another case is in Lam Dong. This is a single woman, raising a small child, homeless, having to stay with her father who is a severely disabled veteran. She herself has chronic bronchial asthma, and sells noodles every day, earning a few tens of thousands of dong, but the policy officer set an average income of 750,000 VND/month. So, from being a poor household according to the assessment of the people in the residential group, her family suddenly became a near-poor household, and with a completely different level of support. People in Trung Vuong residential group, Nam Ban town, Lam Ha district, Lam Dong province - where she lives - wrote a letter to the program asking whether the local government's actions were right or wrong? If there were violations, how would the local government be responsible?

Minister Pham Thi Hai Chuyen:Every year, the Government requires a review of poor households. In 2012, the Government issued Circular 21 guiding the survey of poor households, from identifying poor households, calculating the average level of poor households, and presenting it to the group or village to consider whether the poverty line of 400,000 VND in rural areas and 500,000 VND in urban areas has exceeded that ceiling. If the calculation is incorrect, the local organization must be responsible to you. If in your family's case, suddenly setting the level of 750,000 VND like that is incorrect in terms of reviewing and assessing poor households and needs to be checked. Regarding support for families facing difficulties in housing, I think the government should consider that if you do not have a house and are living with your father, you need to be supported with housing.

I think the goal by 2015 is to support 500,000 families with housing, I am very happy that up to now, implementing Decision 167 of the Government, the Ministry of Construction has concluded that by 2012, it will support 531,000 poor households with housing, with a very good method. That is, the Government supports no more than 1/3, the rest is contributed by families and clans. Therefore, that goal has been achieved ahead of schedule. And up to now, the Ministry of Construction has proposed that the Government continue to implement phase 2, there is a project, the Government has considered it and hopes that the program will be implemented soon.

PV:Dear Minister, Resolution 80, Resolution 30a and the National Target Program for Poverty Reduction of the Government all put sustainable poverty reduction as the top priority. Some people are wondering whether the concept of “sustainability” here can make the poverty reduction efforts in many localities use it as an excuse to legitimize the slowness of local authorities?

Minister Pham Thi Hai Chuyen:I don't think so. Because the Government's Program for Sustainable Poverty Reduction, with specific goals, we only support the poor with direct policies. If poor households are not supported with specific policies, their children will not have money to go to school and will not dare to go to the doctor. But the policy towards sustainable poverty reduction means not only direct support but also investing resources and infrastructure for poor areas with physical difficulties, allocating resources from the budget to transfer to policy banks to lend to the poor for production and creating conditions to encourage and motivate poor households to rise up. Therefore, sustainability means a longer-term policy rather than a direct support policy. However, direct support policies are also very necessary, suitable for each stage.

PV:Thank you, Minister!./.