Poverty reduction - A remarkable achievement of Vietnam

Today (June 7th), the National Assembly discussed in the plenary session the monitoring report of the Standing Committee of the National Assembly on "The implementation of policies and laws on poverty reduction, 2005-2012 period," and also proposed solutions and orientations on mechanisms and policies for poverty reduction for the coming years.

The implementation of poverty reduction policies and laws during the 2005-2012 period was a subject of parliamentary oversight in 2014. The results of this oversight were recently announced by the National Assembly Standing Committee in a 35-page report, which affirmed that poverty reduction is an effective and popular policy.

According to the Standing Committee of the National Assembly, during the period 2005-2012, poverty reduction entered a new phase. The poverty line changed twice, creating conditions for improving the living standards of poor households; there were basically no more households suffering from chronic hunger; poverty, which was widespread nationwide, narrowed down to only mountainous areas, areas with special difficulties, and certain population groups… the quality of poverty reduction shifted towards the goal of sustainable poverty reduction.

Accordingly, the poverty rate decreased from 22% in 2005 to 9.45% in 2010 (old standard) and from 14.2% in 2010 to 9.6% in 2012 (standard for the 2011-2015 period), corresponding to approximately 2.1 million poor households…

The successful implementation of poverty reduction is due to the effective support policies issued by the Party and the State, and the active participation of all levels, sectors, and socio-political organizations.

In particular, direct credit policies for poor households are implemented mainly through the Social Policy Bank, with 15 credit programs for the poor offering preferential interest rates, making them one of the most effective policies.

As the State's primary tool in ensuring social security, the Government, ministries, localities, and the Social Policy Bank have made significant efforts in mobilizing and creating capital sources. To date, the total capital of the Social Policy Bank has increased nearly eightfold compared to its early years of establishment. Total outstanding loans at the end of 2012 increased 6.2 times compared to 2005 (reaching VND 113,921 billion).

Besides direct preferential credit policies for the poor, the Government also implemented a series of effective vocational training and job creation solutions for the poor. During the period 2006-2010, it is estimated that approximately 150,000 poor laborers received free vocational training (achieving 100% of the plan), and 60% of these laborers created their own jobs or found employment.

Ensuring healthcare for the poor is becoming increasingly important. The State provides health insurance for 100% of the poor and 70% for the near-poor. From 2006-2010, 52 million poor people received health insurance cards; in 2011-2012, 29 million poor people and ethnic minorities received health insurance cards. By 2012, 100% of poor people and ethnic minorities had purchased health insurance cards (approximately over 15 million people).

With policies supporting production and business through agricultural, forestry, and fisheries extension programs and poverty reduction model development, 3.7 million poor people have received guidance on how to do business (achieving 88% of the plan), 8,500 demonstration models and field conferences have been built with over 3 million poor people participating. 218 communes in 35 provinces have implemented poverty reduction models with more than 27,500 participating households (of which poor households account for 77%, or 21,300 households).

In addition, the government has also issued many other policies related to supporting housing and farming land for the poor, education and training policies, legal aid, and information support… Besides that, many specific policies have also been issued to apply poverty reduction in particularly disadvantaged areas…

With these achievements, the international community recognizes Vietnam as one of 38 countries with outstanding achievements in poverty reduction. Vietnam is also among the 18 countries awarded Certificates of Merit by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) for poverty reduction and recognized for achieving the Millennium Development Goals early.

Despite the achievements mentioned above, poverty reduction efforts still face difficulties and challenges: There is no significant difference in living standards between poor and near-poor households, leading to a high risk of re-poverty; the gap between rich and poor tends to widen (from 8.1% to 9.4% in 2012); the poverty rate remains high in ethnic minority areas, remote areas, and disadvantaged regions, with ethnic minorities accounting for nearly 50% of the country's poor; and the guidance and management of state agencies, as well as resources for poverty reduction policies, are still limited...

To address the aforementioned shortcomings, the National Assembly's Supervisory Delegation recommends that the National Assembly issue a Resolution on "Promoting the implementation of sustainable poverty reduction goals for the period 2015-2020," focusing on orienting the adjustment of poverty reduction policies after 2015 through changes to the multidimensional poverty standard; prioritizing policies for the most disadvantaged areas, and prioritizing poor ethnic minorities in particularly difficult regions.

The supervisory delegation also requested the Government to urgently review, amend, and rationalize legal documents related to poverty reduction, focusing on policy, reducing the number of documents, and overcoming overlaps and duplications; ensuring a balanced medium-term resource allocation for policies; improving the quality of universal education, investing in infrastructure and human resources to increase access to health and healthcare services for the poor...

The government also needs to strengthen state management of poverty reduction, research and develop poverty standards and poverty reduction policies using a multidimensional approach after 2015 to ensure minimum social security for the poor in terms of employment, social insurance, health care, education, housing, clean water, legal assistance and information to ensure the goal of sustainable poverty reduction.

The government prioritizes addressing the shortage of agricultural land and housing for poor households in ethnic minority areas and disadvantaged regions, promoting the implementation of preferential policies on land, taxes, risk support, investment incentives, and industrial promotion policies to strongly attract businesses to invest, develop production and business, train human resources, and create jobs in poor and disadvantaged areas with large ethnic minority populations.

According to chinhphu.vn