Prime Minister approves over 48,397 billion VND to reduce poverty nationwide

The total budget for implementing the national target program on sustainable poverty reduction in the coming period is nearly 48,400 billion VND, with the goal of reducing the national poverty rate by an average of 1-1.5%/year.

The Prime Minister visited a model farm in Nam Giang commune, Nam Dan district, Nghe An province. Photo: Quang Hieu

Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc has just decided to approve the national target program on sustainable poverty reduction for the 2016-2020 period.The total budget for the program is 48,397 billion VND (more than 2 billion USD), implemented nationwide. The program's resources prioritize investment in poor districts, poor communes (particularly disadvantaged communes in coastal and island areas; ethnic minority and mountainous areas, border communes, and safe zone communes) and particularly disadvantaged villages and hamlets.

The program sets a specific goal of contributing to reducing the national poverty rate by an average of 1-1.5%/year according to the multidimensional poverty standard applied for the period 2016-2020;Improve livelihoods and enhance the quality of life of the poor, ensuring that the average income per capita of poor households nationwide by the end of 2020 increases 1.5 times compared to the end of 2015.

One of the first solutions of the program is to promote the propaganda of the poverty reduction goal to all levels, all classes of people and the poor to change and transform awareness in poverty reduction, and arouse the will to proactively rise up.

The whole country has more than 2.338 million poor households. Illustration photo: Trinh Dao Em

According to the survey results of the Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs, the whole country has more than 2.338 million poor households (accounting for 9.88% of the total number of households nationwide) and more than 1.235 million near-poor households (accounting for 5.22%) according to the multidimensional poverty standard for the period 2016-2020.

The poverty rate according to the multidimensional poverty standard increased from less than 5% in 2015 to nearly 10% in 2016. This change is due to the poverty standard in the 2011-2015 period being based on income measurement, while the new poverty standard in the 2016-2020 period has shifted tomultidimensional approach, including income estimation and collection of information on the level of deprivation of basic social services (health, education, housing, clean water and sanitation, information).

Regarding income, the levelThe new poverty line is 700,000 VND/person/month in rural areas; 900,000 VND/person/month in urban areas.

Binh Duong is the only locality with no poor or near-poor households according to the new poverty standards. Ho Chi Minh City has a very low rate of poor and near-poor households, at 0.02% and 0.2% respectively.

According to VNE