Nghe An strives to reduce the poverty rate by 2-3% in 2018

(Baonghean.vn) - This is one of the contents agreed upon at the review meeting of the Provincial People's Council's Culture - Social Committee on the morning of December 5 with a number of contents related to poverty reduction policies in the province to be presented at the upcoming Provincial People's Council meeting.

Comrade Ho Phuc Hop - Member of the Standing Committee, Head of the Provincial Party Committee's Propaganda Department, Head of the Provincial People's Council's Culture and Social Affairs Department chaired the meeting. Attending were Comrade Nguyen Xuan Son - Standing Deputy Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee, Chairman of the Provincial People's Council; members of the Provincial Party Committee's Standing Committee: Cao Thi Hien - Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Council; Le Minh Thong - Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee; representatives of relevant departments, branches and sectors.

At the meeting, there were many comments on the content of the Submission, the draft Resolution promulgating regulations on principles, criteria, and norms for allocating development investment capital, public expenditures from the central budget and the counterpart fund ratio of local budgets to implement the National Target Program on Sustainable Poverty Reduction for the 2017-2020 period in Nghe An province.

Up to this point, the mobilized resources to implement the Poverty Reduction Program in the province have reached more than 2.7 trillion VND, including: Program 30a, investment support for extremely disadvantaged communes in coastal areas, extremely disadvantaged communes, border areas, support for purchasing health insurance cards for the poor and near-poor, preferential loans... in which the central budget invested more than 2.6 trillion VND and the local budget supported 10 billion VND; socialized resources 135 billion VND. In general, the investment resources to implement the sustainable poverty reduction program are mainly from the central budget, the mobilization and use of resources are implemented for the right purpose, economically and effectively.

Specifically, up to now, health insurance cards have been issued to 209,393 poor people and 147,610 near-poor households; electricity bills have been supported for more than 80,000 poor households; vocational training has been organized for 74,000 people. The national target program for sustainable poverty reduction in 2017 has been implemented with a total capital of nearly 346.4 billion VND, of which development investment capital is more than 232.8 billion VND and public service capital is nearly 113.5 billion VND.

Program 30a has implemented a capital of more than 150 billion VND; of which 22 projects have been built including schools, medical stations, roads, clean water and cultural works...

Comrade Le Minh Thong - Member of the Provincial Party Committee, Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee spoke at the meeting. Photo: Hoai Thu

Assessing the impact and effectiveness of the program, the report of the Provincial People's Committee shows that the relevant levels, departments and branches have implemented it quite seriously, creating increasingly better conditions for poor districts to develop. The annual poverty reduction rate is from 2 - 3%, achieving the planned target.

Also at the meeting, the Culture - Social Committee also reviewed preparations for the promulgation of regulations on principles, criteria, and norms for allocating central budget capital and the proportion of counterpart capital from local budgets to implement the National Target Program on Sustainable Poverty Reduction for the 2016 - 2020 period.

Regarding this content, delegates gave comments on basic contents such as: proposing not to issue accompanying regulations; amending the 2017-2020 fiscal year in the resolution name; clearly defining regulations on appraisal and promulgation agencies; reasonably regulating the support level for projects replicating poverty reduction models; proposing the maximum level for 1 project to support production and diversify livelihoods not to exceed 5 billion VND...

Regarding the allocation of development investment capital and public expenditure from the state budget under the National Target Program on Sustainable Poverty Reduction for the period 2016-2020, based on Decision 48/2016/QD-TTg of the Prime Minister, Nghe An has complied with the provisions of the Law on Public Investment, the Law on State Budget and relevant legal documents; Reasonable allocation between the development of districts and cities, prioritizing support for border areas, ethnic minority areas and areas with particularly difficult socio-economic conditions... Ensuring publicity and transparency in the allocation of capital for the implementation plan of the National Target Program on Sustainable Poverty Reduction.

The Provincial People's Council delegation supervises poverty reduction work in Ky Son district. Photo courtesy

It is expected that by the end of 2017, the whole province will have 177/431 communes meeting new rural standards (41%). The target in 2018 is to reduce the poverty rate by 2-3%, accelerate the poverty reduction rate in poor districts and communes by 4-5%/year; ensure 100% of poor households benefit from related policies.

Next, the Department of Culture and Society reported the results of monitoring the implementation of the National Target Program on Poverty Reduction in 2017, in which it requested the Department of Labor to supplement some data, requested the Provincial People's Committee to supplement more specific contents related to poverty reduction work in coastal communes and some other localities; funding to support medical examination and treatment costs for the poor, tuition exemption and reduction policies, support for poor households to build houses, legal aid, culture and information, support for afforestation; supplementing livelihood support policies for communes outside 30a; assessing the participation of political organizations in poverty reduction work...

Reporting on the examination of voters' opinions and recommendations related to the field of labor, war invalids and social affairs, the Committee for Culture and Social Affairs requested the Provincial People's Committee and the Department of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs to supplement and clarify 3/8 contents related to the field of labor, war invalids and social affairs such as: difficulties in the procedures for recognizing martyrs in Yen Thanh; vocational training for rural workers, the situation of unemployed graduates; handling of fake war invalids in Dien Chau; implementation of conclusions after questioning...

After receiving the opinions of the meeting members, comrade Ho Phuc Hop requested the advisory agencies to develop reports, submissions, draft resolutions to supplement and complete the summary documents to be submitted to the Standing Committee of the Provincial People's Council before submitting them at the next meeting.

Hoai Thu